Cleaner faces jail for stealing Habibie's pens
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)