Court hands down harsher punishment for Puteh

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Supreme Court would appear to have sounded the death knell for the efforts by suspended Aceh Governor Abdullah Puteh to avoid going to prison after it upheld his conviction on graft charges in relation to events stretching back to 2001.

The court, comprising five justices, also upheld Puteh's 10- year jail term, fined him Rp 500 million (US$50,000) and ordered him to pay Rp 6.56 billion in restitution, up Rp 5 billion from high court's verdict, to the state within one month or spend another three years in jail.

The Supreme Court ruling is of final legal effect, although Puteh is still at liberty to seek a review should new evidence come to light.

Court orders requiring convicted defendants to make restitution within a certain period of time have rarely been issued in high profile graft cases here to date.

"The (Supreme Court) finds Abdullah Puteh guilty of unlawfully enriching both himself and other parties as charged under the first count," presiding justice Artidjo Alkostar said during the court session, which was open to the public.

Puteh was not present to hear the court's decision.

A decision of the Supreme Court is seldom read out in open court. A verdict was last delivered by the Supreme Court in public when it acquitted then House of Representatives speaker Akbar Tandjung of graft charges in February 2004.

Puteh was sentenced to 10 years in jail by the Anticorruption Court last April for self-enrichment and abuse of power in the purchase of a Russian-made helicopter for the province in 2001.

On appeal, the Jakarta High Court dropped the first charge but upheld the jail term imposed on Puteh. It also reduced the amount Puteh was required to pay in restitution from Rp 3.6 billion to Rp 1 billion. One of Puteh's lawyers, Tengku Syarifuddin Popon, and two officials of the Jakarta High Court, Ramadhan Rizal and M. Sholeh, are currently standing trial in a bribery case arising out of the proceedings in the high court in the Puteh case.

One of Puteh's lawyers, Muhammad Assegaf, said the verdict was "nonsense", adding that the helicopter was an asset of Aceh province.

"The helicopter does not belong to my client. How can he be ordered to pay restitution?" Assegaf said, adding that he would discuss further legal moves with Puteh.

The Supreme Court rejected arguments from the defense that the lower courts had failed to respect due process.

The lawyers said the investigation conducted by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), had constituted a breach of due process as it had violated the rule against retroactivity. The KPK was only set up in 2002.

But the court found that the KPK had not in fact violated the rule as the offense of corruption has been punishable by the same sentence from 2001 to date.

"The lower courts decisions to hear the Puteh case accord with the popular sense of justice as the public have suffered greatly as a result of widespread corruption. The efforts to eradicate corruption may no longer be pursued through normal means but rather require extraordinary ones," said Artidjo.

The justices found that Puteh's corruption had inflicted losses of Rp 10.8 billion on the state, consisting of money paid out of the Aceh administration's budget into Puteh's personal account with Bank Bukopin in Jakarta to finance the purchase of the helicopter.

A total of Rp 3.4 billion was later transferred to Bram Manoppo, who heads PT Putra Pobiagan Mandiri, the firm that brokered the deal. Bram is now standing trial on charges arising out of the same events.