"We agreed to reject the defendant's defense statement. The defendant is entitled to accept, think over and take legal action over this decision," presiding judge Haswandi said during the trial at the court on Thursday, as reported by Antara news agency.

The 30-page defense statement read out by Anas on June 6, described how President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had lobbied to have Anas charged with graft in the Hambalang sports complex construction case, for which he is now standing trial.

Haswandi further said that the court would now continue with the examination of witnesses. Furthermore, he said, there would be two trials held each week due to the large number of witnesses.

Anas said that he only hoped that the trials would be objective. "I hope that the judges and the prosecutors can conduct the trials fairly," he said.

Anas has been accused of amassing Rp 116 billion (US$9.9 million) and $41,295 in fees from rigging a number of state projects, of which he allegedly spent around Rp 97 billion funding his bid to become the Democratic Party chairman, while the remaining Rp 20 billion was reportedly spent on plots of land in Jakarta and Yogyakarta as a way to conceal the source of the illicit funds.

In addition to money laundering charges, the KPK also accused Anas of spending Rp 3 billion to bribe East Kutai administration officials to secure a commercial mining license for PT Arina Kota Jaya, a dummy company that he allegedly planned to use to conceal illicit funds. (fss)

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