Eight years asked for corruptor
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
State prosecutors recommended on Monday the South Jakarta District Court sentence a former president director of state- owned company PT Bahana Pembinaan Usaha Indonesia (PT BPUI) to eight years in prison for causing the state to suffer losses amounting to US$240.9 million.
Chief prosecutor Boediman Rahardjo also demanded that the court order the defendant, 42-year-old Sudjiono Timan, to repay Rp 1 trillion in compensation to the state and to serve the sentence directly.
Timan is accused of violating the Anticorruption Law, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment.
PT BPUI is a company under the central bank responsible for channeling funds to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
"The defendant had committed a crime that had caused a huge financial loss for the state," said Boediman.
However, he cited several mitigating factors, including that Timan had developed state-owned Bahana Securities and Bahana Arta Ventura.
Judge Putra Jadnya adjourned the hearing until Sept. 30 to hear the lawyer's defense. Usually a criminal court adjourns a hearing for two weeks, but Judge Putra Jadnya said that the judges would join a tennis competition in Surabaya so they would not be able to hold the hearing in two weeks.
During the defendant's term as president director from 1994 to 2001, PT BPUI had disbursed the money to several companies who were not qualified to receive the funds.
They included Kredit Asia Finance Limited and Festival Company Inc., which are owned by his close friends, business tycoon Hashim Djojohadikusumo and Agus Anwar respectively, who also owns the now-defunct Bank Pelita, as well as tycoon Prajogo Pangestu.
Timan had also approved the disbursement of Rp 263 billion in PT BPUI's investment funds (RDI) to both companies and Virgin Island-based PT Penta Investment Limited, an apparently fictitious company jointly established by Timan and Prajogo.
The Attorney General's Office has named Prajogo, Agus, and several PT BPUI directors as well as former minister of finance Ali Wardhana, who served as president commissioner of the BPUI board of commissioners between 1994 and 2001, as suspects of the same case.
However, it is not clear whether or not they would appear in court as defendants.