P

rosecutors for the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) filed an appeal request on Friday against the controversial acquittal of Bekasi Mayor Mochtar Mohamad on charges of corruption.

The ruling issued by the Bandung Corruption Court has drawn criticism over the independence of local graft courts, which were set up following the enactment of the 2009 Anti-Corruption Law.

Mochtar’s charges include his alleged role in rigging the selection process for the Adipura city cleanliness award and an alleged attempt to bribe the city council to approve the 2010 budget. Many have questioned the verdict, as one of the judges, Ramlan Comel, was a former lawyer and businessman who was sentenced to two years in jail for corruption charges before his own acquittal at an appellate court.

“We have today filed a request [notice of cassation] to appeal to the Bandung court,” the commission’s prosecutor, Ketut Sumedana, told The Jakarta Post over the phone on Friday, adding that the appeal would be heard at the Supreme Court soon after they were ready with their petition of cassation.

“As the request [notice of cassation] has been filed, we will soon draft our petition of cassation within seven to 10 days. We do not want to waste our time,” he said.

The Code of Criminal Procedure stipulates that the appellant must submit their petition of cassation containing grounds for the appeal within 14 days after filing the request.

Ketut said that his team would first study the verdict that they received on Friday “To find what grounds the team can use in the petition.”

The team say they will also include in the petition their evidence of an alleged Rp 200 million (US$22,600) paid in bribes, which was not being considered by the bench. “Yes, we are still curious why the judges did not put this evidence into their consideration,” he said

In the bribery case, Mochtar is accused of conspiring with regional secretary Tjandra Utama Effendi, who was sentenced in June 2010 for paying a Rp 4.25 billion bribe to Lilik Haryoso, the head of the budget agency at the Bekasi Legislative Council. The bribe was intended to speed up the council’s approval of the city budget.

Ketut said that his team was facing difficulties in gathering evidence of the alleged Rp 4.25 billion in bribes because the money had allegedly been divided equally to all members of the city council.

The bench, however, stated when delivering the verdict that the KPK prosecutors had failed in presenting evidence that would have incriminated Ramlan, saying that “none of the evidence presented by the prosecutors confirmed the incident.”