Councillor receives probation for using fake school diploma

Councillor receives probation for using fake school diploma

Suherdjoko, The Jakarta Post/Semarang

Mundir Alif, a Central Java councillor from the Democratic Party,
was sentenced on Friday to four months in jail with a probation
period of eight months for using a fake diploma to run for
office.

In a separate development, a Semarang councillor, Sri
Mariatiningsih, who is also from the Democratic Party, was faced
with a similar charge and is being questioned by police.

Judge Budi Hartono, who presided over the trial of Mundir,
said the defendant was found to have used a fake diploma in
violation of General Elections Law No. 12/2003.

Based on testimony from witnesses, the court concluded that
the diploma from Walisongo Islamic State Institute in Semarang
was fake.

Mundir had also used another diploma he claimed to have
received in 1973 from the Kudus Islamic State Institute.

"But the institute opened in 1975," said the presiding judge.

The sentence handed down means Mundir will not serve the four-
month prison term unless he commits a crime during his eight-
month probation.

The case surfaced a few weeks before the Central Java
councillors-elect were inaugurated on Sept. 3. Despite the
controversy over the case, Mundir was sworn in along with 99
other councillors, pending due process of law.

It is unclear whether he will be replaced by another
councillor following the verdict.

Fitriyah, head of the Central Java General Elections
Commission (KPU), was not available for comment on Friday.

Sri Mariatiningsih was still being questioned as of Friday
upon suspicions that she had used a fake Bethesda Senior High
School diploma to run in the April 5 legislative election.

She claimed to have graduated from the school in 1982, but
preliminary investigations by the Semarang Police discovered the
possibility of fraud.

Yusuf Sely, a former principal of Bethesda, told police the
diploma was a fake, as the signature at the bottom -- while it
resembled his -- was certainly not his signature.

The two Both fraud cases are two of among dozens of other fake
diploma cases that surfaced following the April election.