Court clerks admit to taking 'bribe'

Court clerks admit to taking 'bribe'

JAKARTA: Two Jakarta High Court clerks admitted to receiving
money from convicted Aceh Governor Abdullah Puteh's lawyer Tengku
Syaifuddin Popon, who is on trial in a bribery case worth nearly
Rp 250 million (US$25,000).

Ramadhan Rizal and Muhammad Soleh told the Anticorruption
Court here on Monday that they received a bag containing Rp 249.9
million on June 15, 2005, but claimed not to know why Popon gave
them the money.

"The defendant put a black bag below my table but I didn't
know how much money was in it. I later gave the money back to the
defendant when the attorneys came in and asked for it," Rizal
said.

Soleh and Rizal alleged Said Salim, a clerk at the Medan High
Court, was the "main architect" of the bribe transaction, saying
he arranged a meeting between Popon and the panel of judges who
dealt with Puteh's appeal.

The bribe attempt was apparently aimed at reducing the 10-year
jail term of Puteh, who was convicted of embezzlement after
marking up the purchase price of Russian-made helicopter for the
Aceh administration in 2001.

Puteh has not been charged in connection with the latest
bribery case.

The Supreme Court earlier upheld Puteh's sentence on appeal,
fining him Rp 500 million and ordering him to pay Rp 6.56 billion
in restitution to the state. --JP