Ex-mayor gets eight months probation for accepting gifts
Ex-mayor gets eight months probation for accepting gifts
JAKARTA (JP): Judges at the West Jakarta District Court on
Tuesday sentenced former West Jakarta mayor Sutardjianto to eight
months probation after he was proven guilty of receiving gifts
during his tenure.
"The defendant has violated article 418 of the Criminal Code
for receiving gifts," presiding judge Soeparno said while reading
the verdict.
Dozens of housewives from several social foundations, which
had been financially assisted by Sutardjianto during his tenure,
were present at the hearing in support of the defendant. They
immediately clapped their hands upon hearing the verdict.
Soeparno said the defendant was guilty of receiving Rp 1
billion (US$147 million) from witness Yanto Lukman and Rp 699
million from another witness, Wen Chei Siang.
Judge Sri Handojo, who took the next turn in reading the
verdict, said the money was given to the defendant in return for
all the documents that Yanto and Wen needed to legalize their
ownership over both a 7,080 and a 9,330-square-meter plot of
land. The two witnesses obtained the land from Sutardjianto's
predecessors.
Both plots of land were part of a disputed 19,800-square-meter
plot of land in North Meruya subdistrict in West Jakarta.
The defendant said in a previous hearing that he had been
entrusted by his predecessor, Sudjoko, to settle the dispute.
Sri Handojo said both witnesses transferred the money, as
requested by the defendant, to the defendant's private account at
the West Jakarta branch of Bank Pembangunan Daerah (BPD) in 1996.
The land dispute goes back to 1972, when former governor Ali
Sadikin decided the city administration-owned 19,800-meter-square
plot of land should be used to build houses for homeless people
in the capital.
For unknown reasons, the scheme was not carried out by
Sutardjianto's predecessors. Sutardjianto, who was the West
Jakarta mayor from 1988 until 1993, said he made the decision on
the matter and retained the ownership certificates of the land
that had been sold by unknown parties before he took the helm of
the West Jakarta administration.
Charity
The defendant admitted that during his term he released the
land certificates to the owners, who numbered at least 121
people, including Yanto and Wen.
Sri Handojo said instead of transferring the funds he
collected to the city administration's treasurer, the defendant
had used them to finance some charities and to serve his own
interests.
The defendant, through his lawyer Luhut Pangaribuan, said he
would consider appealing the verdict.
The verdict drew immediate objection from noted anticorruption
activist Teten Masduki, who accused the judges of having applied
the wrong article to the defendant.
"The decision was controversial. The defendant had indeed
returned the money to the state, but it could not cover the fact
that he had been involved in corruption," said Teten, coordinator
of independent corruption watchdog, Indonesian Corruption Watch
(ICW).
Teten said the judges should apply article 1 of the 1971 Anti-
Corruption Law, which carries a maximum sentence of life
imprisonment. Article 418 of the Criminal Code, however, only
carries a maximum sentence of six months in jail.
Earlier, prosecutor Rusli demanded the court sentence the
defendant to one year in jail for receiving gifts. (asa)