T

he Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has been working hard for more than nine months to build a strong case against the embattled former House of Representatives speaker Setya Novanto, who is suspected of playing a major role in one of the biggest corruption cases in the country’s history, pertaining to the procurement of e-ID cards.

After all the hard work, the ball is now in the court of the panel of judges at the Jakarta Corruption Court who are expected to deliver the verdict on the politician on Tuesday.

Prosecutors demanded the court sentence Setya to 16 years in prison and pay Rp 1 billion (US$71,652) in fines for his alleged role in the case, which reportedly caused Rp 2.3 trillion in state losses.

The antigraft body also rejected the defendant’s request for justice collaborator status, as the commission argued that Setya had not provided significant or new information related to the case.

It has been a long journey for the antigraft body, which started with a tip-off from former Democratic Party treasurer and graft convict Muhammad Nazaruddin five years ago.

In August 2013, Nazaruddin provided the KPK’s investigators with information that the e-ID procurement project had been subject to a markup totaling Rp 2.5 trillion, which was allegedly distributed to House lawmakers, Home Ministry officials and businesspeople.

Based on this information, the KPK launched an investigation and three people have been found guilty in the case, namely former Home Ministry senior officials Irman and Sugiharto as well as businessman Andi Agustinus, also known as Andi Narogong.

The case has also implicated a number of politicians and officials.

“The KPK’s commissioners have given the orders to follow up the matter,” KPK deputy chairman Saut Situmorang said Monday.

Prosecuting Setya was a challenge for the antigraft body. It met obstructions along the way, including a granted pretrial motion that annulled his suspect status last August. The KPK named him a suspect again two months later in November.

Pressure has been mounting recently on the judges to punish the defendant heavily because of Setya’s reputation for being a “teflon” politician, as he had repeatedly dodged prosecution in several corruption cases in which he was alleged to have been involved.

Setya was implicated in the Bank Bali scandal in 1999, which involved the transfer of Rp 546 billion from the bank to a company he controlled. The court swiftly acquitted him of any involvement.

He once again escaped legal proceedings related to an attempted back-room deal with mining giant Freeport McMoran’s Indonesian subsidiary in 2015. The incident cost him the House speakership that he had held since 2014, but Setya was eventually reinstalled as House speaker again.

While the antigraft body expressed hope that the judges would punish the defendant with the same punishment as demanded by prosecutors, Setya’s lawyers expected that verdict would be fair.

“We hope the judges will consider our defense properly,” Setya’s lawyer Maqdir Ismail said.

The verdict on Setya will be read out by presiding judge Yanto — who is also the Central Jakarta District Court head — and four other judges, namely Frangki Tambuwun, Anwar, Emilia Djaja Subagia and Ansyori Syaifudin.

It will be the first graft trial for Judge Yanto after he succeeded Jhon Halasan Butar Butar, a presiding judge in the trials of other defendants in the case, who was transferred to Pontianak High Court in West Kalimantan. Yanto previously served as head of the district court in Sleman, Yogyakarta and Denpasar, Bali.