Councillor on trial for fraudulent
Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang
The Tangerang District Court started on Tuesday the trial of a councillor charged with submitting a fake university diploma to join the upcoming legislative election.
Prosecutor Eben Silalahi told the court that defendant Fonaha Mendrofa, 47, of the Indonesian Democratic Party for Struggle (PDI-P) faction, had submitted the fake diploma in his application submitted to the Tangerang General Elections Commission on Jan. 27.
The defendant is a legislator with Cipondoh district of the Tangerang municipality.
Silalahi said the case was based on information given by two PDI-P members: Johaness Saragih and Deddy Safei, the Tangerang deputy mayor, to the poll commission that Mendrofa was not a graduate of the school of economics of Krisna Dwipayana University in East Jakarta as he claimed.
After examining the diploma, the poll commission reported the case to the Tangerang General Elections Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) which later asked confirmation from the university.
The university management replied that Mendrofa had never registered as a student nor graduated from the University in 1993 as cited in the diploma.
The poll watch reported the case to the police and removed Mendrofa from the legislative candidate list.
The prosecution charged the defendant under Article 137 of Law No. 12/2003 on general elections. The article carries a maximum punishment of three months in prison plus a Rp 6 million (US$706) fine.
Panwaslu secretary Safril Elain said that the defendant should have been charged under the education law, that carries a harsher punishment of five years imprisonment for document forgery.
"Mendrofa deceived the public when he used the same diploma in the last elections and enriched himself for five years as a councillor. But the Election Law gives a very lenient punishment to violators," he added.
Under the Criminal Code, the prison term for falsifying legal documents is a maximum of seven years.
During the hearing, presiding judge Poltak Sitorus even called on the Constitutional Court to review the Election Law.
He adjourned the hearing until next week to hear the witnesses.