Ex-council chief gets 8 years

The Jakarta Post, Sidoarjo/Palu/Padang/Ambon

A former councillor in Sidoarjo, East Java, was jailed for eight years on Tuesday for misusing Rp 21.9 billion (US$2.4 million) from the city's 2003 budget.

The Sidoarjo District Court also fined Utsman Ikhsan, who led the legislative council for the 1999-2004 period, Rp 200 million and ordered him to repay Rp 601 million of the corrupted money.

Prosecutors had demanded a six-year prison term for the defendant, a politician from the National Awakening Party (PKB).

The eight-year jail term for Utsman was the heaviest sentence so far handed down in the country for a councillor convicted of graft. Last July, 43 councillors in North Sumatra received between 24 months and 27 months in prison for corruption.

Utsman was found guilty of marking up the council's operational budget from Rp 870 million, or 0.75 percent of Sidoarjo's Rp 116 billion 2003 budget, to Rp 20.9 billion.

The money was allegedly distributed to all 43 council members. Utsman's former deputies Agus Sutego and Imron Sukur are being tried by the same court in the same case.

Judges said Utsman bore the greatest responsibility for the graft because he issued a decree to disburse the money.

"The funds were then used to enrich Utsman and other council members. It was clearly an act that caused state losses," presiding judge Yamanie said.

He said the former council speaker personally received some Rp 601 million of the money.

During the trial several witnesses said that Utsman played an active role in corrupting the funds.

Utsman's lawyer, Nicholas Reidi, indicated his client would appeal the sentence. "How can the court's sentence be heavier than the sentence sought by the prosecutors?" Nicholar asked.

Utsman is among a growing list of officials and former officials who have been tried and convicted for corruption, as Indonesia, named by graft watchdog Transparency International as the world's fifth most corrupt country, attempts to clean up its image.

In Central Sulawesi, prosecutors detained Tolitoli council deputy speaker Umar Alatas after questioning him for nine hours on Monday over a corruption case.

Umar, who also leads the local branch of the Golkar Party, has been charged with embezzling some Rp 2 billion from the regency's budget when he served as the council speaker during the 1999-2004 term.

Prosecutors earlier detained Umar's former deputy speaker, Dahyar Alatas, who chairs the Tolitoli branch of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), and two other former councillors, Barnabas Patoh and Muhammad Arif Muluk, on the same charges.

Prosecutors also seized seven motorcycles, Rp 132 million in cash and Rp 70 million in insurance policies from the three suspects.

Umar's lawyer Andi Makkasau protested the detention of his client, and questioned why prosecutors did not also detain senior administration officials allegedly involved in the case.

In Maluku, prosecutors, in cooperation with police in arrested local councillor Salim Alkatiri for failing to answer several summons to appear for questioning in connection with budget irregularities at the Buru health office.

The suspect, from the National Mandate Party (PAN), was summoned three times but failed to show up all three times, prosecutor Fauzy Marasabessy said on Tuesday.

He said Salim, the former head of the Buru health office, was being charged with misappropriating more than Rp 900 million earmarked for the purchase of medicine for the office in 2002.

Salim was detained by police at a family home in Ambon on Friday.

"We decided to arrest him when he was sworn in as a new member of the Buru legislative council in early October. But we postponed the arrest on the order of the Maluku Prosecutor's Office," Fauzy said.

In West Sumatra, councillor Syahril BB was convicted of attacking a Media Indonesia newspaper journalist. He was sentenced to three months in prison on Tuesday and one-year probation.

Syahril was jailed for two years by the Padang District Court last July in a Rp 6.4 billion corruption case involving almost the entire West Sumatra legislative council.