Zumi Zola (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)

Actor-turned-politician Zumi Zola Zulkifli made a decision in 2011 to quit his career in showbiz to pursue a political goal, running for election as a regent in Jambi.

Four years after being elected, he decided to run for higher office, the governor of Jambi — following in the footsteps of his late father Zulkifli Nurdin, who led the province for two terms from 1999 to 2010. He won the election and was inaugurated by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in February 2016.

However, he was later arrested for corruption and was convicted on Thursday when the panel of judges at the Corruption Court sentenced him to six years’ imprisonment and a fine of Rp 500 million (US$34,362).

“We also sentence him by revoking his right to run for [public] office for [the next] five years as soon as he finishes his [prison] sentence,” presiding judge Yanto said, as he read out the panel’s ruling during a hearing on Thursday.

The ruling did not mention revoking Zumi’s right to vote.

The panel found the suspended Jambi governor guilty of accepting gratuities amounting to Rp 41.05 billion and a Toyota Alphard between 2016 and 2017 without reporting them to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

The 2001 Corruption Law gives graft busters authority to prosecute any state officials found accepting unlawful gifts, if the latter does not report the gifts to the antigraft body within 30 days of acceptance.

Zumi was also found guilty of distributing Rp 16 billion in bribes to dozens of provincial legislative council members in order to influence the deliberation of the 2017 and 2018 provincial budgets.

The KPK has included the stripping of political rights in its sentence demand for several graft defendants, with Zumi being the latest. Former Southeast Sulawesi governor Nur Alam, who was found guilty of corruption linked to mining licenses issued in Buton, was banned from running for any public office for five years after he finished his prison sentence. Graft convicts Setya Novanto, the former House of Representatives speaker, and Anas Urbaningrum, former Democratic Party chairman, were both also banned from running for public office for five years after release from prison.

“This is our effort to encourage integrity among prospective officials,” KPK deputy chairman Laode Muhammad Syarief said.

The Corruption Law does not specify a ban on graft convicts running for future office as part of their sentence but the Criminal Code allows judges to revoke a convict’s right to hold a public position, or to vote or run in an election if found guilty. However, the United Nation’s International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights limits such prohibitions to offices won through general elections. The code also limits the time frame to five years.

“That isn’t enough to prevent [graft convicts] from repeating their crimes, there should be other measures,” said Almas Sjafrina of Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW).

— Nurul Fitri Ramadhani contributed to the story

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