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Prosecutors to appeal Dahlan Iskan acquittal
Dahlan Iskan (JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)The East Java Prosecutor’s Office will appeal the Surabaya High Court’s recent decision to overturn the conviction of former state-owned enterprises minister and media mogul Dahlan Iskan in a corruption case surrounding the sale of assets of a company owned by the East Java provincial administration
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Dahlan Iskan (JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)
The East Java Prosecutor’s Office will appeal the Surabaya High Court’s recent decision to overturn the conviction of former state-owned enterprises minister and media mogul Dahlan Iskan in a corruption case surrounding the sale of assets of a company owned by the East Java provincial administration.
The prosecutor’s office spokesperson, Richard Marpaung, said it believed Dahlan was guilty in the case and therefore it would soon appeal the verdict, a copy of which it had not yet received.
“Once we receive it, we will study it, and of course we will file an appeal,” Richard told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday, “We are sure that he was guilty as charged in this corruption case.”
Dahlan was accused of being involved in a graft case surrounding the sale of 33 assets that belonged to PT Panca Wira Usaha (PWU)
On April 21, the Surabaya Corruption Court sentenced him to two years in prison and ordered him to pay a fine of Rp 100 million (US$ 7,497). At that time, the panel of judges said that Dahlan was guilty of abusing his authority as PWU director.
The corruption case was estimated to have resulted in state losses of Rp 2.3 trillion
“Is it possible that the judge misread the verdict? I read in the media that there were dissenting opinions in the decision,” Richard added.
Surabaya High Court spokesperson Untung Widarto confirmed that the court had overturned the district court’s verdict and acquitted Dahlan of all charges.
The panel of judges in the hearing comprised Andriani Nurdin, Muljianto, Syamsul, Irwan Rambe and Moch. Ichwan.
“By granting this appeal, Surabaya High Court has stated that the defendant, Dahlan Iskan, is found to be innocent in this graft case,” Untung said on Wednesday. However, he said he could not explain the considerations behind the judges’ verdict.
Untung also confirmed that there were dissenting opinions from Mujianto and Irwan.
“But they went with the majority,” Untung said.
Dahlan was hit by a number of legal problems after ending his stint as a member of former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Cabinet.
On Jan. 26, the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) named Dahlan a suspect in a bribery case pertaining to the procurement of 16 electric cars for operational vehicles at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Conference in October 2013.
In June 2015, he was named a suspect for allegedly rigging the procurement of electricity transformers worth more than Rp 1.3 trillion for state electricity firm PLN in 2009. Investigators found that the state lost Rp 33 billion because of two malfunctioning central electricity transformers procured by PLN.
He won a pre-trial motion to halt the prosecution.
