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KPK turns to Supreme Court to challenge not-guilty verdict on former PLN head
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Deputy Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) chairwoman Basaria Panjaitan (left) and KPK spokesman Febri Diansyah answer questions at a press conference at KPK headquarters in Jakarta in October 2017. (Antara/Aprilio Akbar)
T
he Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has appealed to the Supreme Court in response to a not-guilty verdict handed down by the Jakarta Corruption Court against the former president of state-owned electricity firm PLN, Sofyan Basir.
KPK spokesman Febri Diansyah said the commission had filed an appeal with the Supreme Court on Friday and was in the process to complete the necessary dossier and evidence for the appeal, which needed to be submitted within 14 days.
“Our prosecutors have identified the weak point in the corruption court judges’ verdict. We will assert our statement in the dossier that the verdict shouldn’t have cleared the defendant of all charges,” Febri said in a statement on Monday.
He added that there were a number of facts and evidence that had yet to be considered by the judges in the verdict. “For example, we found that the judges did not consider the defendant’s role in accelerating the project by breaking some rules.”
Read also: KPK suffers another blow with not-guilty verdict for ex-PLN chief
The prosecutors would also submit a video recording of the trial to show that new facts had been unveiled during the hearings but had not been considered by the bench, Febri added.
A panel of five judges at the Jakarta Corruption Court on Nov. 4 cleared Sofyan of all charges in connection with bribery related to a coal-fired power plant (PLTU) project in Riau, widely known as the Riau-1 power plant.
KPK prosecutors had previously demanded that Sofyan be punished with five years of imprisonment as well as a Rp 200 million fine.
The KPK had indicted him of organizing several meetings to accelerate the deliberation of the power plant project, which eventually led to bribes accepted by Golkar Party politicians Idrus Marham and Eni Maulani Saragih from businessman Johannes Budisutrisno Kotjo. Graft busters had accused Sofyan of having knowledge about the illicit payments despite not having accepted any bribe himself.
The court, however, argued that Sofyan had not broken any law by accelerating the project’s deliberation, as that was in line with President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s plan to fast-track the government’s 35,000 megawatt electricity program kicked off in 2015.
