Appeal hearing open to public

JAKARTA: The Supreme Court will deliver its verdict on an appeal sought by graft convicts Harun Let-let and Tarcisius Walla in a hearing on Wednesday that will be open to the public.

A non-career judge at the anticorruption court MS Lumee said on Tuesday the panel of justices would read out the verdict at the Wiryono Room at the Supreme Court building, starting at 10 a.m.

The Supreme Court usually issues verdicts without prior notice, meaning that no-one but the justices attend the hearing. The appeal hearings of former Golkar Party chairman Akbar Tandjung in February 2004 and suspended Aceh governor Abdullah Puteh last September were the only occasions when the Supreme Court notified the public in advance.

The anticorruption court sentenced former treasurer at the directorate general of sea transportation Let-let to eight years jail, and former secretary of the directorate general Walla for seven years for embezzling Rp 10.26 billion of the state money spent on land for a seaport development in Southeast Maluku. The higher court upheld the conviction, sentencing Let-let and Walla to nine years and seven years of imprisonment respectively. -- Antara