Former council speaker to go on trial soon

Former council speaker to go on trial soon

Syofiardi Bachyul Jb and Rusman, The Jakarta Post/Padang/Samarinda

The trial of a former Payakumbuh council speaker accused of
embezzling Rp 695.7 million (US$66,300) of public money would
begin soon, a senior prosecutor said on Wednesday.

Regional prosecutors handed the dossier on Chin Star to a
local district court on Tuesday, office chief Zulbahri Munir
said.

Chin, who served as speaker from 1999 until this year, was
earlier named a suspect by police. The misappropriated money came
from the city's 2001 and 2002 budgets, they said.

Zulbahri said prosecutors were currently questioning all 24 of
the other councillors who could face trial if there was enough
evidence to implicate them.

Chin is in custody at the Payakumbuh city Prosecutor's Office.

Separately in East Kutai, East Kalimantan, prosecutors ordered
a graft suspect to remain in the city, a move criticized as too
lenient by observers.

Abdul Nanang, the former speaker of East Kutai regional
council, was barred from traveling out of town after he was named
as the key suspect in the embezzlement of Rp 46.6 billion from
the East Kutai council budget between 2001 and 2002.

Asked why the suspect was only put into city detention and not
jailed, Miyanto, the chief of East Kutai Prosecutor's Office,
said the office had faith that Nanang, a public figure and a
leading politician, would not leave the town. He was also
cooperative in a recent series of graft investigations, Miyanto
said.

Nanang, of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, was
reelected for a second term to the council.