Cleaner faces jail for stealing Habibie's pens

JAKARTA (JP): A prosecutor asked the Central Jakarta District Court on Tuesday to sentence a cleaning service man posted at the Presidential Palace to 14 months in jail for stealing 11 of President B.J. Habibie's pens.

Prosecutor Fentje E. Loway said the 27-year-old defendant, Mulyadi Umar Jaya, stole the 11 Montblanc pens -- altogether worth Rp 33 million (US$4,715) -- at a presidential household room in the palace on Jl. Veteran, Central Jakarta, at different occasions in December last year and April this year.

"Nine of the pens were sold at Rp 2.8 million (about Rp 310,000 each) to finance the defendant's wedding party," Fentje told the court, adding that the market price of the pens was Rp 3 million each.

Nur Hidyawati, deputy head of presidential household affairs, said in the indictment that the pens were supposed to be souvenirs from the President to new Indonesian Ambassadors.

Fentje said Mulyadi also stole Nur's savings book, which he used with a copy of the owner's identification card to withdraw Rp 2.4 million from Bank BNI's Harmoni branch office on April 3.

Three days later, Nur received a letter plus her savings book from Mulyadi, who threatened the palace staffer to not look for him because of his wrongdoing, the prosecutor said.

But police detectives immediately located his whereabouts and arrested Mulyadi on the same day.

Attired in a white shirt and black trousers, Mulyadi, a resident of the state secretariat housing complex in Sunter, North Jakarta, was quiet.

He told the court earlier that he stole the pens from a filing cabinet in the presidential household room usually at 7 p.m., when all the employees were already gone.

He said he later asked his nephew, Iwan Kurniawan, to sell the pens.

Iwan told the court earlier that he sold the pens to employees of Bank Papan Sejahtera.

He could not remember the employees since the bank was liquidated by the government.

Prosecutor Fentje asked the court to sentence the defendant since he committed his crimes at the Presidential Palace, causing a loss of Rp 33 million to the state.

"I recommend 14 months in jail ... The defendant, who did not commit any previous crimes, regretted what he did. He admits to his crimes and did not make any difficulties for the trial," he said.

He said the defendant had violated Article 363 (1) of the Criminal Code. The article carries a maximum punishment of seven years in jail.

Presiding Judge Poerwanto adjourned the trial until next week to hear the defence lawyer's plea.

The defense lawyer, Robert Manurung, said that he would ask the court to lighten the sentence.

"The lack of security at the Presidential Palace tempted the defendant to steal the pens," Robert said outside the court. (jun)