Convicted council members seek money to appeal

Rusman and Sjofiardi Bachyul Jb, Samarinda/Padang

The West Sumatra provincial council has sent an official letter to councillors in East Kalimantan, asking them to provide financial aid to West Sumatra councillors convicted on graft charges, according to a document made available to The Jakarta Post.

The money was badly needed by the councillors in their bid to appeal the guilty verdicts of the Padang District Court and the handing down of jail sentences to the West Sumatra councillors, said the letter dated May 21, or four days after the verdict.

The letter was signed by Arwan Kasri, the speaker of the West Sumatra provincial council, who was also convicted on graft charges along with 43 out of the 55 members of the council. The councillors were sentenced to terms of up to two years and three months in jail, but they remain free pending appeal to the West Sumatra High Court.

The five-year terms of the West Sumatra councillors, like those of most of other councillors in the country, will come to an end in August.

Besides asking for money, the West Sumatra councillors also solicited moral support from their fellow councillors in East Kalimantan in the letter.

Separately, the deputy speaker of the East Kalimantan provincial council Kasyful Anwar As'ad asserted that his council had rejected the request as it had no money.

"We would definitely support the appeal and we hope that they can get the verdicts overturned in the higher court. But, we have no money. The East Kalimantan provincial government does not have the money," said Kasyful.

Nurhuda Trisula, a councillor from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), supported Kasyful's comments, but for different reasons. He asserted that the East Kalimantan provincial council had to reject the request on moral grounds. "They have already been convicted so that it would not be prudent for us to give them money," said Nurhuda, who is also a member of the East Kalimantan provincial council's budget committee.

Meanwhile, Arwan Asri confirmed that he had sent the letter to the East Kalimantan provincial council. In fact, such letters had been sent to another 23 provincial councils that were members of the Association of Indonesian Provincial Councils.

Arwan admitted that no official responses to the letters had been received as of Tuesday.

He further acknowledged that the provincial council was forced to send the letters on the ground that the West Sumatra councillors needed a great deal of money to pay for their appeals to the High Court, especially to pay for the lawyers.

"We are pooling our money to finance a joint defense. It is hard for us, especially as our terms will end soon," said Arwan.