T

he Jakarta Corruption Court has sentenced Emirsyah Satar to eight years in prison after finding the former president director of Garuda Indonesia guilty of accepting Rp 49.3 billion (US$3.4 million) in bribes and laundering Rp 87.5 billion related to aircraft procurement.

The court has also fined Emirsyah Rp 1 billion and ordered S$2.11 million ($1.48 million) in restitution, as reported by Antara news agency.

The sentence was lighter than what Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) prosecutors sought. They advocated for 12 years of imprisonment and a fine of Rp 10 billion based on Emirsyah having received bribes from British engineering company Rolls-Royce in connection with the procurement of aircraft parts and from European aviation giant Airbus in connection with aircraft procurement, among other sources.

According to the verdict, one of the reasons for the lighter sentence was Emirsyah’s role in “bringing Garuda Indonesia recognition as a prestigious airline in the world.” Judge Anwar read the verdict during a hearing on Friday.

Both the defendant and KPK prosecutors told the court they would take time to consider before appealing the verdict.

The KPK indicted Emirsyah for accepting Rp 8.8 billion, $882,200, 1 million euro ($1.1 million) and S$1.18 million in bribes on five separate occasions while procuring airplanes and parts.

The antigraft body also named former Garuda engineering and fleet management director Hadinoto Soedigno and former Garuda executive project manager Agus Wahjudo as Emirsyah’s coconspirators under the bribery charge.

The KPK accused Emirsyah of laundering Rp 87.4 billion through multiple channels and also implicated Soetikno Soedarjo, the former president director of diversified retail holding company PT Mugi Rekso Abadi.

The antigraft body stated that a portion of the money was changed into several different foreign currencies and transferred to multiple overseas bank accounts in violation of Article 3 of the 2010 Money Laundering Law.

Other sums were laundered through debt repayments and a variety of property schemes, including a home renovation project in South Jakarta, mortgage payments on an apartment in Melbourne, Australia, and an ownership transfer for an apartment in Singapore.

In a separate hearing on Friday, the corruption court gave Soetikno six years in prison and a Rp 1 billion fine for bribing Emirsyah and contributing to the money laundering committed by the former Garuda president director.

The verdict was lower than the KPK’s demand of 10 years in prison and a fine of Rp 10 billion.

The bench did not grant prosecutors’ demand of $14.7 million and 11.6 million euro in restitution for Soetikno.

Soetikno and the prosecutors said they would take time to consider before filing an appeal.