The Jakarta Corruption Court has sentenced former United Development Party (PPP) chairman Muhammad "Romy" Romahurmuziy to two years in prison for accepting bribes and allowed him to keep his political rights, a punishment lighter than demanded by prosecutors.

"[The court] declares that Muhammad Romahurmuziy has been officially and convincingly proven to be guilty of the crime of corruption," presiding judge Fazal Hendri said at the Jakarta Corruption Court in Central Jakarta on Monday.

The sentence was half of the four years demanded by prosecutors last week. The judges also decided not to strip Romy of his political rights, in contrast to the prosecutors’ demands.

Fazal said the judges' decided to defer to a 2019 Constitutional Court ruling that stated that former convicts could run for elected office five years after they had served their sentence.

"The panel of judges agrees with the Constitutional Court's ruling so we will not impose the additional punishment of revoking [Romy's] political rights," he said.

Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigators arrested Romy in March 2019 for allegedly accepting Rp 416.4 million (US$30,500) in bribes to influence then-religious affairs minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin, a PPP member, to promote two ministry officials.

The two officials, Haris Hasanuddin and Muafaq Wirahadi, were both previously found guilty of bribery and sentenced to two years and one-and-a-half years in prison, respectively.

Maqdir Ismail, one of Romy's lawyers, said the judges' decision not to take away his client's political rights was justified.

"The [alleged crimes] have nothing to do with Romy's political activities," Maqdir said after the ruling.

However, antigraft activists have begged to differ.

"[Romy] clearly used his political influence when he committed the graft, so [the judges] absolutely should have revoked his political rights," Indonesia Corruption Watch researcher Kurnia Ramadhana told The Jakarta Post.

"The revocation of political rights is an important instrument to deter graft. And it should also be done so the public is no longer presented with political candidates with bad track records."

In the run-up to the 2019 general election, the General Elections Commission (KPU) issued a regulation prohibiting former graft convicts from running in legislative elections. After vocal objections from political parties, the regulation was eventually revised.

Kurnia also took issue with Romy's lighter prison sentence.

"The court's ruling was very lenient and did not reflect the public's sense of justice at all," he said. "The KPK should appeal the sentence."

Prosecutors charged Romy with accepting Rp 255 million directly from Haris and conspiring to help Lukman obtain an additional Rp 70 million from Haris. Romy was also charged with accepting Rp 91.4 million in bribes from Muafaq through his cousin Abdul Wahab and an unidentified aide.

In his defense statement, Romy strenuously denied any wrongdoing and claimed he only accepted Rp 250 million from Haris out of politeness and returned the money afterward. He denied receiving any money from Muafaq.

In his testimony during the trial, Lukman acknowledged he had asked Romy for his opinion when filling ministry positions because of the latter's position as PPP chairman, but said that they sometimes disagreed. He also denied receiving any money from Haris.

Despite the denials, the judges said it had been proven that Romy had accepted a total of Rp 255 million from Haris, while Lukman received Rp 70 million. However, the judges ruled that the Rp 41.4 million Muafaq gave to Romy's cousin Abdul Wahab had not been proven to have been accepted by Romy.

In his testimony, Abdul Wahab admitted he had pretended to have obtained Romy's support for Muafaq's promotion, despite never speaking to Romy about it.

After the ruling was read out, both Romy and the prosecutors said they would "think about" lodging an appeal.

"I told the judges that I would consider [whether or not to appeal] after consulting with my family," Romy said.

"Because both parties are still thinking, this sentence is not yet legally binding," Fazal said. "If [the parties] do not make a decision within seven days, it means they accept the ruling."

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