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)