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'Not a crime': Supreme Court acquits key suspect in BLBI graft case
The Supreme Court announced Tuesday it had granted an appeal filed by former Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency chairman Syafruddin Arsyad Temenggung to overturn the lower courts’ decision to sentence him to 15 years in prison with a fine of Rp 1 billion for his role in a multimillion dollar graft case.
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Acquitted: Syafruddin Arsyad Temenggung, the former Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency chairman, leaves the Corruption Eradication Commission headquarters after attending questioning on April 18. (Antara/Hafidz Mubarak A.)
T
he Supreme Court has acquitted former Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) chairman Syafruddin Arsyad Temenggung, the man at the center of the Bank Indonesia Liquidity Support (BLBI) scandal, of corruption charges.
The court announced on Tuesday it had granted an appeal filed by Syafruddin to overturn the lower courts’ decision to sentence him to 15 years in prison with a fine of Rp 1 billion (US$70,738) for his role in the multimillion dollar graft case.
“Syafruddin was proven to have committed an action with which he had been charged, but the action is not a crime,” the court’s spokesperson, Abdullah, told a press conference in Central Jakarta on Tuesday as quoted by Antara.
The bench, however, was not unanimous in issuing the verdict, Abdullah said. One judge, he explained, argued the court should uphold the opinion of the appellate courts, but the other two judges were of the opinion that the defendant’s action was a civil or administrative matter.
“There was a dissenting opinion. It was not unanimous,” he said.
In September 2018, the Jakarta Corruption Court found Syafruddin guilty of discharging Sjamsul Nursalim, the owner of Bank Dagang Negara Indonesia (BDNI), from repaying the government, causing Rp 4.58 trillion (US$308 million) in state losses.
Sjamsul and his wife, Itjih Nursalim, were also charged in the case.
