8.5 years, huge fine sought for ex-KPU chief
Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The prosecution recommended on Wednesday that the chairman of the General Elections Commission be sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in jail and ordered to pay a Rp 450 million (US$45,000) fine for corruption.
Prosecutor Tumpak Simanjuntak said that the defendant had been proved guilty of abusing his powers as the chairman of the KPU by asking for Rp 14.93 billion in kickbacks from an insurance firm seeking a contract to cover election workers during the holding of the 2004 general elections.
"The defendant is guilty of having enriched himself, others and a private firm at the expense of the state, and this act violates the Anticorruption Law," he told the antigraft court.
The case, seen as a test for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's commitment to rooting out rampant corruption, emerged after the KPU was widely applauded for holding the country's first direct presidential election last year.
In a separate trial, prosecutor Wisnu Baroto recommended that KPU treasurer Hamdani Amin be sentenced to five-and-a-half years on charges arising out of the same graft case and be ordered to pay fines of Rp 450 million.
The prosecution also recommended that both defendants be ordered to repay Rp 14.93 billion in ill-gotten gains to the state or have another four years added to their sentences.
Nazaruddin's wife and the former speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), Amien Rais, who attended the hearing, looked shocked upon hearing the prosecution recommendation. Amien recently testified in favor of Nazaruddin, saying the poll body had successfully organized the 2004 legislative and presidential elections.
Nazaruddin in his capacity as KPU chairman appointed insurance firm PT Bumi Putra Muda 1967 to provide occupational accident coverage for 5.7 million election workers during the 2004 general elections. No tender process was gone through.
Company executives testified that they won the project following their acceptance of the main condition that the project's value be reduced by 34 percent -- a sum that was later allocated as a kickback to the KPU.
Judge Krisna Menon, who is chairing the judicial panels in both trials, said the trials would resume on Nov. 25 to hear defense arguments.
The case came to the surface after commission member Mulyana Kusumah was caught by Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigators in a Jakarta hotel room trying to bribe a state auditor (who had been wired) to overlook irregularities in the KPU finances.
The arrest triggered a sweeping investigation into the KPU, resulting in a series of arrests that shocked many people as many of those apprehended were respected members of the community who were believed to be clean.
Mulyana, a criminologist, was found guilty of soliciting a bribe and was sentenced to 31 months in jail, while KPU deputy treasurer M. Dentjik was given three years in jail.