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.