1999 vote scandal to go to court

JAKARTA: State prosecutors will soon bring an alleged Rp 5 billion graft case involving former members and staffers of the 1999 General Election Commission (KPU) before the Central Jakarta District Court, spokesman Barman Zahir said on Thursday.

The suspects are Bambang Mintoko of the Indonesian Democratic Party; Clara Sitompul of the Indonesian Christian National Party; KPU procurement unit chief Ahmad; and supervision unit chief I Wayan Lasia.

They are charged with embezzling state funds allocated for the procurement of 960,000 packages of party flags from broker Sri Hartati of PT Sas Kencana Engineering. Only 240,000 of the packages were actually ordered. --JP