Beddu Amang goes to prison for corruption<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Former State Logistics Agency (Bulog) head Beddu Amang began
\nserving a four-year prison sentence for graft on Friday after the
\nSupreme Court rejected his appeal.<\/p>\n
Accompanied by his lawyers, who had been successful in
\npreventing their client from being detained since the prosecution
\nbegan in 2000, Beddu arrived at the Cipinang Penitentiary in East
\nJakarta on Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n
The head of the South Jakarta Prosecutor's Office, R. Himawan,
\nand his staff picked up the convict from the National Police
\nHeadquarters, where Beddu was being held over another graft case
\ninvolving the markup of livestock feed imported by Bulog through
\nfour private companies in 1997.<\/p>\n
As he walked to the prosecutor's car, Beddu insisted that he
\nwas only a state official who was implementing the policies of
\nhis bosses.<\/p>\n
\"I am a former state official. I was just a subordinate
\nimplementing the two government policies,\" he told the swarm of
\nreporters surrounding him.<\/p>\n
Clad in a gray sweater, Beddu said he had received a written
\norder to implement the policies that would later turn him into a
\ngraft suspect. However, he refused to say whether he was
\nreferring to former president Soeharto, who stepped down in May
\n1998 after more than 30 years in office.<\/p>\n
Police investigators said they would continue their
\ninvestigation into the second graft case allegedly involving
\nBeddu despite his imprisonment.<\/p>\n
\"We can question him here or at the penitentiary,\" said Sr.
\nComr. Marsudhi Hanafi, the director of corruption and white-
\ncollar crime at the National Police Headquarters.<\/p>\n
On January 6, the Supreme Court rejected the appeal filed by
\nBeddu's lawyers.<\/p>\n
Beddu was sentenced to two years in jail by the South Jakarta
\nDistrict Court in 2001 for his involvement in a land swap deal
\nthat prosecutors said caused the state Rp 95.4 billion in losses.<\/p>\n
Beddu appealed the verdict to the Jakarta High Court, which in
\n2002 upheld the guilty verdict and increase Beddu's jail term to
\nfour years in 2002.<\/p>\n
The crime occurred in 1995 when Bulog signed a deal with a
\ncompany owned by Hutomo \"Tommy\" Mandala Putra, the youngest son
\nof then president Soeharto.<\/p>\n
The deal allowed Tommy's company to build a hypermarket on
\nBulog-owned land in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta. In return,
\nTommy was to provide a plot of land to Bulog. Tommy, however,
\nfailed to hand over the land to Bulog as agreed. Instead, Bulog
\npaid Tommy's company billions of rupiah for a plot of land to
\nreplace the land it lost in Kelapa Gading.<\/p>\n
Tommy was tried by the same court for his involvement in the
\ncase and was sentenced to 18 months in prison in September 2000.
\nHowever, he fled before he could begin serving the sentence.<\/p>\n
Tommy is now serving a 15 year jail term for his involvement
\nin the contract killing of a Supreme Court justice who rejected
\nhis appeal in the land swap case.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/beddu-amang-goes-to-prison-for-corruption-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}