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panel of judges handed over a 32,372 square meter land certificate to the Sumber Waras Foundation on Wednesday, after a criminal court verdict believed to pave the way for the Jakarta administration to build a cancer hospital on the adjacent land.

At Wednesday'€™s trial the West Jakarta District Court handed down a one-and-a-half year prison sentence to I Wayan Suparmin, head of thw Candra Naya Social Organization (PSCN), for embezzlement related to the land certificate.

Presiding judge Muhammad Saleh said Wayan had violated Article 372 of the Criminal Code (KUHP) by abusing his position as PSCN head to keep the land certificate from Sumber Waras, a foundation established by the PSCN.

'€œBased on the facts revealed in court, the judges were certain that Sumber Waras is the rightful owner of the land and the defendant has committed criminal action by keeping the certificate,'€ Saleh said.

He went on to say that to achieve justice, the judges would return the land certificate to Sumber Waras, as well as putting Wayan behind bars.

The land dispute began in November 1970 when then PSCN head Padmo Sumasto granted the land to Sumber Waras, a decision that, according to the defendant, had been made without approval from the other PSCN members. The defendant also said that the PSCN had canceled the land hand over during a meeting in September 1999.

Years later the dispute escalated after one of the country'€™s richest women Kartini Muljadi became head of Sumber Waras Foundation.

The foundation, which held a certificate for land adjacent to the disputed plot, sold the 3.7 hectare plot of land to the city administration for Rp 775.69 billion (US$53.2 million) for a cancer hospital to be built on it. However, without also purchasing the disputed land, the city administration there would be no access to the main road Jl. Kyai Tapa.

In addition to the decade-long dispute between Candra Naya and Sumber Waras, the city administration also received a report from the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) declaring that the land purchase was too expensive because the land was not located on Jl. Kyai Tapa.

However, Jakarta Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama insisted on continuing the hospital project.

Before the dispute went to the criminal court, Wayan agreed to give the land certificate to Sumber Waras in exchange for 40 percent of the land being allotted for Candra Naya to build a computer school. However, the proposal was turned down by Kartini, who then later filed a police report against Wayan, accusing him of embezzling the land certificate.

'€œThe defendant'€™s wrongdoing has violated all the regulations in Article 372 KUHP on embezzlement as charged by the state prosecutors,'€ Saleh continued.

Speaking after the trial, Wayan'€™s lawyer Jimmy Stevanus Mboel said the judges had yet to consider all of his defense statement, and therefore failed to deliver a fair verdict.

In his note of defense, Jimmy said he had emphasized that the PSCN had annulled the land granted to Sumber Waras through a legitimate process, which according to him automatically made PSCN the rightful owner of the disputed land.

'€œBut as you can see, in his verdict the judges did not bring up that issue at all. We are considering filing an appeal against the verdict,'€ Jimmy said.

The judges granted a seven-day period for the state prosecutors and the defendant to challenge the verdict at the High Court.

The disputed land and the city'€™s land are close to the strategically located Sumber Waras Hospital in West Jakarta. The hospital director, Abraham Tedjanegara, said that Sumber Waras had told the city administration that the city could not begin construction of the hospital until December 2016 because the hospital needed time to relocate the assets from the city'€™s land to the disputed land.

Ahok has previously said that he wanted the hospital to be built as soon as possible.