Akbar trial fails to link money to politics

Akbar trial fails to link money to politics

Berni K. Moestafa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

With Akbar Tandjung's conviction in a Rp 40 billion corruption
case involving State Logistic's Agency (Bulog) funds, legal
experts said chances were slim that the public would find out
where the money actually went.

Although many have suspected that the money went to the Golkar
Party which Akbar chairs, following up on this was deliberately
left out of Akbar's trial. However, it did determine that the
money was not used for the poor as Akbar claimed.

"I am afraid there isn't much hope for the public to find out
now where the money went," said legal expert Pradjoto on
Thursday.

Neither prosecutors nor the judges seemed interested in the
actual beneficiary of the ill-gotten money.

Prosecutors refused to include that possibility in their
indictment, calling it irrelevant.

"They (prosecutors) focused on Akbar's mistake and in doing
so, that shifted attention away from Golkar," Pradjoto said.

Akbar, also speaker of the House of Representatives, was
sentenced to three years in jail in a verdict on Wednesday many
considered too mild, especially since he is now free pending
appeal which could take months or years.

"Akbar's sentence is too lenient because the charges against
him were not linked to Golkar," said legal expert Achmad Ali of
the Makassar-based University of Hasanuddin. "Had prosecutors
combined the case with tracing the money to Golkar, the verdict
could have been heavier."

The stated penalty for corruption is 20 years to life in
prison, however prosecutors requested only four years.

Combining the two charges would have meant that Akbar was also
guilty of violating Law 2/1999 on political party laws which
limits donation to Rp 150 million.

Criminal law expert Rudy Satrio of the University of Indonesia
said judges should have taken the initiative to expand the
indictment to include tracing the money with the possibility of
implicating Golkar.

Akbar was the state secretary under then president B.J.
Habibie, also a top Golkar man, when he received the funds in
February 1999, months before his party contested the general
election.

Golkar secured a surprising second place behind the Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), defying criticisms
of its central role under the 32-year iron-fisted rule of
Soeharto.

Akbar claimed all along that the Rp 40 billion was meant to
feed the poor and that he transferred it to the Raudlatul Jannah
Foundation for that purpose.

It turned out that the foundation never received the money
and, in fact, Raudlatul Jannah and the food distribution project
likely never existed, according to prosecutors.

Co-defendant Winfried Simatupang who was said to be in charge
of the phantom project, later claimed he stashed the Rp 40
billion under his bed. During the trial he paid back the money in
installments.

Apparently satisfied with the bizarre and dubious under-the-
bed theory, the prosecutors refused to investigate the money
trail any further.

Nonetheless, the public could still find out if that theory
was true through a separate investigation and trial, possibly
targeting Golkar.

"It can be done under the political party law if there is
enough evidence that Golkar used illicit funds for its campaign,"
Rudy explained.

However, he said, since Akbar cannot be tried twice for the
same charges, other people need to be charged who would be able
to uncover the truth.