In his testimony, Ahok told the court that he knew Sanusi as a city councilor and was not aware the Gerindra Party politician was a member of City Council's Legislation Agency (Balegda), which discussed the bills.

"I just found out he was a member of Balegda from the news. What I know is the deliberations were handled by Taufik," he told the judges, referring to City Council Speaker Muhammad Taufik.

On the bylaw discussions, Ahok said he knew that Taufik had disagreed with several points in the drafts, according to Jakarta Development Planning Board (Bappeda) head Tuty Kusumawati.

It was also Taufik, who is the older brother of Sanusi, who proposed lowering the provision for additional contributions from reclamation developers to 5 percent from the 15 percent submitted by the city administration.

Furthermore, Ahok claimed not to know that Sanusi had discussed reclamation matters with his aide Sunny Tanuwidjaya over the telephone, saying he learned during Ariesman's trial that Sanusi and Sunny had communicated.

Sanusi was arrested by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in April along with property giant PT Agung Podomoro Land's president director Ariesman Widjaja and employee Trinanda Prihantoro. Sanusi was caught by KPK investigators allegedly accepting Rp 2 billion (US$151,802) from Ariesman in relation to the deliberation of the bills. (rin)

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