Eight-year jail term sought for Bob Hasan
JAKARTA (JP): State prosecutors asked the Central Jakarta District Court on Thursday to sentence timber tycoon Muhamad 'Bob' Hasan, a long-time crony of former president Soeharto, to eight years in jail for corruption.
Chief prosecutor Arnold Angkouw, presenting the 418-page statement, said that the defendant's fraudulent aerial mapping project, from 1989 to 1999, had caused losses of US$244 million to the state.
The prosecutor asked the court to order the defendant to return the ill-gotten money and also requested the court fine the defendant Rp 30 million and seize his three cars, three houses and land in Cawang, East Jakarta for the state.
The 70-year-old defendant, charged with crimes that carry a maximum life sentence, appeared calm during the hearing, which started at 9 a.m. and ended at 6:15 p.m.
"Based on the testimony of 41 witnesses during the hearing and our factual analyses, it has been proven that the defendant violated the contract. The procedures and the results of the mapping project were not in accordance with the requirements stipulated in the 1989 contract," Angkouw said.
Bob Hasan, a golfing buddy of Soeharto, was minister of trade and industry in 1997. He is the first of Soeharto's cronies to stand trial for corruption.
The prosecutor said that the defendant, who chaired the Indonesian Forest Concessionaires Association (APHI), had misappropriated $168 million obtained from the association's members, and another $75 million of the Ministry of Forestry's forestation funds.
The prosecutor said that the association charged each member US$2 for every cubic meter of exported timber, and $1 for every cubic meter of exported wood product, as the aerial mapping fee.
The prosecutor said the defendant assigned PT Mapindo Parama, a company owned by himself, to conduct the aerial mapping of 599 forest concessions. However, the company only completed mapping 81 concessions over a period of eight years, while the Ministry of Forestry had stipulated that the mapping should be completed within three years.
When journalists asked Bob to comment on the sentence demand, the defendant just smiled and pointed at his lawyers. "I don't know much about law," he said.
Earlier, the defendant asked the district court to set aside all political considerations and focus on the legal aspects of his case. He said that the entire prosecution was motivated at sentencing him to a jail term.
Presiding judge Soebardi adjourned the session until next Thursday to hear the defense statement.
Meanwhile state prosecutors are investigating another corruption case involving Bob Hasan.
Prosecutors believe Bob and Asmaning Tjipto Wignjoprajitno, chairman of the Association of Indonesian Wood Panel Producers (Apkindo), mishandled some US$84 million provided for export promotion that came from monthly dues of Apkindo's members.
Bob was the organization's chief patron in 1997 when the misappropriation is said to have occurred.
On Thursday, prosecutors failed to seize a 70-hectare plot of land in Cibinong area, West Java, believed to have been purchased by Bob Hasan using misappropriated Apkindo funds.
Prosecutor Suwandi said that Cibinong District Court had not approved the seizure because the description of the land was incomplete.
Spokesman for the Attorney General's Office, Muljohardjo, said that the land belongs to PT Inagro, a company owned by Bob Hasan and Apkindo's chairman Asmaning Tjipto Wignjoprajitno.
Prosecutors claim that PT Inagro was established using Apkindo funds.
Earlier, prosecutors seized fixed deposits and accounts worth more than $52 million and Rp 3 billion (some $315,800), 20 sedans and minivans, which reportedly had been purchased using Apkindo's money but were used by the two suspects for their personal transportation needs. (01/bby)