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Supreme Court rejects KPK's appeal against not-guilty verdict for former PLN chief
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The former president director of state-owned electricity company PLN, Sofyan Basir, attends his indictment hearing at the Jakarta Corruption Court on June 24, 2019. (The Jakarta Post/Dhoni Setiawan)
T
he Supreme Court on Tuesday turned down an appeal filed by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) against a not-guilty verdict given to the former president director of state-run electricity company PLN, Sofyan Basir.
Last year, the Jakarta Corruption Court cleared Sofyan of all charges in connection with bribery related to a coal-fired power plant (PLTU) project in Riau.
“The appeal was turned down because according to the judicial panel, the judex facti, or decision made by the Jakarta Corruption Court, was correct in front of the law,” Supreme Court spokesperson Andi Samsan Nganro said on Wednesday as reported by kompas.com.
According to Andi, the not-guilty verdict was the correct decision given that there was no evidence proving the involvement of Sofyan in the bribery case as stated on the indictment.
Based on such findings, five panel-judges at the Supreme Court namely Sofyan Sitompul, Krisna Harahap, Abdul Latief, Leopold Luhut Hutagalung and Suhadi decided to turn down the appeal on Tuesday.
"What was appealed by the [KPK] prosecutors has been proved based on facts and judged based on evidence," he said, indicating that Sofyan was innocent.
Read also: Supreme acquittal
At the time of writing, the KPK has not yet responded to The Jakarta Post’s requests for comments on the matter.
A panel of five judges at the Jakarta Corruption Court on Nov. 4, 2019 cleared Sofyan of all charges in connection with a bribery case that took place within the Riau-1 power plant project — a coal-fired power plant (PLTU) project in Riau province.
The KPK indicted him of organizing several meetings to accelerate the deliberation of the power plant project, which eventually led to a bribery scheme involving a businessman named Johannes Budisutrisno Kotjo and Golkar Party politicians Idrus Marham and Eni Maulani Saragih.
Despite not having received any bribes himself, the KPK accused Sofyan of having knowledge about the illicit payments, thus demanded a five-year prison sentence and a Rp 200 million (US$ 14,144) fine for Sofyan.
As the court argued that Sofyan had not broken any laws by accelerating the project’s deliberation, then-KPK spokesperson Febri Diansyah pointed out how “the judges did not consider the defendant’s role in accelerating the project by breaking some rules.” (trn)
