Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician Izedrik Emir Moeis went on trial on Thursday for his alleged role in a bribery case involving a US subsidiary of France-based conglomerate Alstom.

Emir is accused of accepting US$423,985 in bribes from the company in exchange for his helping the company to secure the construction of a coal-fired power plant in Tarahan, Lampung, in 2004.

'€œIt is suspected the money was a bribe because the defendant played a key role in helping Alstom to win the Tarahan power plant tender,'€ said Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) prosecutor Irene Putri, reading from Emir'€™s indictment at the Jakarta Corruption Court in Kuningan, South Jakarta.

During the tender, Emir was serving as a member of the House of Representatives'€™ Commission VIII, which at that time oversaw energy.

State-owned electricity company PT PLN had originally opened the tender for the project, which was jointly funded by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and the Indonesian government, in 2001.

In order to win the tender, an Alstom Power Inc. consortium, which comprised Alstom Power Inc. '€” a subsidiary of Alstom based in the US, Marubeni Corp. and Alstom Power Energy Systems Indonesia, entered the bidding process.

After meeting the requirements to participate in the tender, former Alstom executive David Gerald Rothschild, who has pled guilty for his involvement in the case, met with Emir to seek his help in securing the tender for the consortium.

Emir allegedly responded by asking Rothschild if he would be paid a financial incentive for his services.

'€œTo realize the plan, Rothschild contacted Pirooz Muhammad Sarafi as the president of Pacific Resources Inc. in the US and a broker [in the case] who had a lot of connections with officials in Indonesia, including [within] PLN,'€ Irene said.

Emir then had meetings with Alstom Power Inc. officials in France and Washington DC at the end of 2002. All Emir'€™s traveling and personal expenses were paid by the company.

The consortium ultimately won the project tender in 2004.

Pirooz, who handled the negotiation with Alstom, initially succeeded in securing 3 percent of the project'€™s value in kickbacks, before finally settling for 1 percent.

To cover up the scheme, Pirooz attempted to wire the money from his company to another company in Indonesia.

Pirooz and Emir agreed that it would be best to wire the money to PT Artha Nusantara Utama, which was owned by Emir'€™s son.

The KPK prosecutors argued that Artha Nusantara never had any business dealings with Pirooz'€™s company; thus maintaining that the financial transaction between the two companies was just a smoke screen to hide the money trail.

Emir has been charged under articles 11 and 12 of the 1999 Corruption Law and, if found guilty, he faces a maximum 20 years'€™ imprisonment.

In response to the indictment against him, Emir said it was unjust, as he was only named a suspect in mid-2012.

He also argued that of the 11 PLN staffers whom he allegedly lobbied, not one had said they had been contacted or pressed by him on the matter.

'€œEight of them even said they had never met me,'€ Emir said.

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