Akbar says charges against him political

Akbar says charges against him political

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

House of Representatives (DPR) Speaker Akbar Tandjung denied on
Wednesday all corruption charges stacked against him in a Rp 40
billion (US$4.44 million) graft scandal, and called the case a
maneuver to kill his political career.

Akbar said the corruption charges amounted to character
assassination.

"It's not true that I conspired with others to cause losses to
the state and spread lies in public. Those accusations clearly
attack my personality and are a form of character assassination,"
Akbar, who is also the chairman of the Golkar party, told the
prosecution.

He claimed that he did not abuse his power or attempt to
enrich himself as that would go against the trust given to him as
a political figure.

"There's a systematic effort to put the blame on me and create
negative public opinion against me through many forms and media,"
he said.

Akbar is charged with misusing Rp 40 billion in nonbudgetary
funds of the State Logistics Agency (Bulog), which were supposed
to be allocated to provide food for the poor, when he was a
minister/state secretary in 1999 under then president B.J.
Habibie.

Prosecutor Fachmi demanded last week that the court sentence
Akbar to a four-year jail term for masterminding the Bulog
scandal.

Fachmi said that Akbar had not delivered Bulog funds to the
Raudlatul Jannah Islamic Foundation led by Dadang Sukandar, who
appointed Winfried Simatupang as the contractor for the
distribution of food aid packages to the poor.

Akbar's lawyer Amir Syamsuddin also said that Akbar was
innocent of all charges and claimed that the prosecutor had made
inconsistent charges against his client.

"Initially, the prosecutor accused our client of delivering
the funds to Dadang and Winfried. Now he says that our client
kept the funds for himself and that he conspired with Dadang and
Winfried that they had received the funds," he said.

However, Fachmi said later that the charges were consistent.

Akbar is on trial with Raudlatul Jannah Foundation chief
Dadang and Winfried.

The judges are expected to give their final verdicts within
the next one or two weeks.

The Rp 40 billion Bulog fund scam, which allegedly involves
Akbar, emerged when the money was not used for a food security
program, but was allegedly channeled to the Golkar Party for its
1999 election campaign.

Akbar previously made several inconsistent statements at his
trial. At first, Akbar denied receiving the checks but later said
he did.

Several figures have lobbied to save Akbar and Golkar. The
latest statement in support of Akbar came from the legal team of
former Bulog chief Rahardi Ramelan, who is also charged with
corruption related to the Bulog scam in a separate trial.

Rahardi's lawyer Trimoelja D. Soerjadi told the Central
Jakarta District Court that there a meeting was held on Oct. 2,
2001, in Muladi's house in Mayestik, South Jakarta. Muladi was
Akbar's successor as minister/state secretary under Habibie's
presidency.

Rahardi was asked to lie before the investigators from the
Attorney General's Office to cover up for Akbar's and the Golkar
party's involvement.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri's party, the Indonesian
Democratic Party for Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), allegedly made a
back room deal with Golkar, as many of its members this month
voted not to set up a special House committee to investigate
Akbar.

The House failed to establish the committee, leaving the
reform agenda against corruption in limbo.

The same committee was formed last year to investigate former
president Abdurrahman Wahid, who was eventually removed from
office after he was accused of having received funds from Bulog
illegally.