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span class="caption" style="width: 398px;">Facing the law: Democratic Party lawmaker Angelina Sondakh testifies at the trial of 2011 SEA Games graft suspect Muhammad Nazaruddin (unseen) at the Jakarta Corruption Court on Wednesday. Prosecutors, judges and Nazaruddin himself all doubted that Angelina had told the court the truth. JP/Ricky YudhistiraLawmaker Angelina Sondakh told the Jakarta Corruption Court she was innocent on Wednesday when testifying at the corruption trial of former Democratic Party colleague Muhammad Nazaruddin.

The former Miss Indonesia appeared calm as she sat in the witness chair, facing a barrage of questions from judges, prosecutors, Nazaruddin’s lawyers and the defendant himself.

One issue raised in the courtroom were alleged BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) conversations between Angelina and Mindo Rosalina “Rosa” Manulang, an employee of Nazaruddin.

According to prosecutors, the pair allegedly used BlackBerry smartphones to negotiate a bribe to be paid to award the Rp 191.7 billion (US$25.5 million) contract to build the athletes’ village for the Southeast Asian Games in Palembang, South Sumatra.

Angelina, who maintains a glamorous lifestyle on a relatively meager lawmaker’s salary of Rp 20 million a month, denied owning a BlackBerry when the conversation allegedly took place.

“I don’t know about the conversation. Neither did I possess a BlackBerry,” Angelina said.

Angelina denied knowing the nicknames used in the BlackBerry Messenger conversations, such as “big chief”, “Washington Apple” and “watermelon”, adding that she did not know about any “commitment fees”.

Wednesday marked the first time that Angelina testified publicly since the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) started investigating the case in April.

Although the KPK declared Angelina a suspect early this month, her name originally came to light last May, when Rosa told KPK investigators that Angelina played an important role in rigging the tender.

Angelina denied all allegations leveled at her, including having a close acquaintance with Rosa, who is now serving a two-and-half-year prison sentence prison for bribing Youth and Sports Ministry secretary Wafid Muharram and for her role as middleman in the scandal.

Later, Angelina refused to answer Nazaruddin’s lawyers as they attempted to implicate Democratic Party chairman Anas Urbaningrum in the case, saying that the questions were not relevant.

“Prosecutors summoned me here as a witness in the [SEA Games] case. I don’t want to answer,” she said.

Nazaruddin rejected Angelina’s testimony in the courtroom, hammering her with questions about her presence when he, along with Angelina’s late husband, Adjie Massaid, prepared money from Nazaruddin’s holding company to secure Anas’ victory in 2010 party chairmanship in Bandung, West Java.

Angelina denied an accusation levied by Nazaruddin in court that she met with him, Wafid and Youth and Sports Minister Andi Mallarangeng, who challenged Anas for the party’s leadership.

Nazaruddin has been charged with accepting Rp 4.6 billion in bribes from an official of the company that won the bid, PT Duta Graha Indah (DGI).

Prosecutors also accused Nazaruddin of allegedly masterminding the bribery scheme and as acting as a middleman between DGI and the ministry, which commissioned the project.

Hotman Paris Hutapea, the flamboyant and fierce lawyer representing Nazaruddin, challenged Angelina’s testimony, telling the court that Angelina and other witnesses had made false statements against his client.

Hutapea asked the court to summon the KPK’s investigators and Yulianis and Oktarina Furi, two officials of Nazaruddin’s holding company, to challenge their testimony.

Prosecutors later called Wayan Koster, a lawmaker from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) to testify.

Koster denied any connection with the scandal, saying that he never heard that the meeting was masterminded to profit others.

Presiding judge Sudharmawati-ningsih adjourned the trial until Friday, when prosecutors are expected to present additional witnesses.

Prosecutor Anang Supriatna told reporters after the trial session that the KPK would present more evidence than just BlackBerry messages to prosecute Nazaruddin.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party has taken a beating in recent surveys, after many of its top officials were implicated in the scandal.