Bulog corruptor's appeal tossed out by Jakarta High Court

Bulog corruptor's appeal tossed out by Jakarta High Court

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The defense team of former State Logistics Agency (Bulog) chief
Rahardi Ramelan has yet to decide whether to appeal the High
Court verdict of guilty for their client's misuse of Rp 62.9
billion in Bulog funds.

The misappropriated funds includes Rp 40 billion that was
disbursed to then Cabinet secretary Akbar Tandjung, who has been
found guilty of graft and sentenced to three years in prison, but
remains free pending his appeal to the Supreme Court.

Lawyers Trimoelja D. Soerjadi and Frans H. Winarta, who
represented Rahardi at the High Court, said on Tuesday that they
had yet to discuss the issue with Rahardi.

"We have to wait to receive a copy of the verdict. I think he
must appeal to the Supreme Court, because it would merely examine
whether the lower courts applied the law correctly in my client's
case. He has nothing to lose," Trimoelja said.

Jakarta High Court spokesman Hasan Basri Pase confirmed that a
panel of judges led by Judge Samang Hamidi upheld the verdict of
a district court, which sentenced Rahardi to two years for his
role in the 1999 graft case.

The South Jakarta District Court found Rahardi guilty of
abusing his power in disbursing Rp 4.6 billion to bail out
retailer PT Goro Batara Sakti in its debt to Bulog.

The court also found Rahardi guilty of channeling Rp 400
million to Laode Kamaluddin, an advisor to Vice President Hamzah
Haz and member of the People's Consultative Assembly, in order to
procure favorable media coverage for B.J. Habibie, who was
contesting the 1999 presidential election.

Rahardi, however, remains free as the High Court, like the
South Jakarta District Court, failed to specify a date for him to
start serving his jail term.

The Jakarta High Court had earlier supported a lower court's
guilty verdict for Akbar, incumbent House of Representatives
speaker and Golkar Party chairman, in misusing Rp 40 billion of
Bulog funds under the rice for poor program and sentenced him to
three years in prison.

At the same time, the high court increased the sentence for
Akbar's two accomplices Dadang Sukandar and Winfred Simatupang to
three years in jail, from the 18-month sentence handed down by
the district court.

Many believe that Akbar actually channeled the money to
bankroll the Golkar party's 1999 election campaign, but this line
of investigation was never pursued during his trial.

Suspicion also abounds that, although the graft cases of
Rahardi and Akbar are connected, the two cases have been kept
separate in their legal processes -- most likely to acquit Akbar
from all charges.

Akbar is a presidential candidate for the Golkar Party.

The Supreme Court has promised to issue a verdict on Akbar's
appeal at the end of this month, even though Chief Justice Bagir
Manan had announced that the verdict would be delivered in
September.