High court sentences Bob to six years in jail
High court sentences Bob to six years in jail
JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta High Court on Wednesday sentenced
Mohamad "Bob" Hasan to six years in prison for corruption and
ordered him to pay compensation of US$243 million -- the amount
of the losses suffered by the state.
The court's spokesman, A. Hutauruk, said the panel of judges
had also ordered the defendant to pay a Rp 15 million fine or
spend a further six months in jail.
Hasan was found guilty of inflicting losses on the state
between 1998 and 1999 through a fraudulent aerial mapping project
and of misappropriating reforestation funds.
The high court's sentence was much harsher than the one passed
by the Central Jakarta District Court on Feb. 2.
The lower court sentenced Hasan, a timber tycoon and golfing-
buddy of former president Soeharto, to two years under house
arrest -- a controversial verdict that sparked a wave of public
criticism.
The district court judges, presided over by Soebardi, also
exonerated Hasan of charges of fraudulently misusing $168 million
allocated for the aerial mapping conducted by his company PT
Mapindo Parama. The judges ruled that this was a civil matter
between the company and the Indonesian Forest Concessionaires
Association (APHI).
The district court found that the state had suffered $75
million in losses but it only ordered Hasan to pay compensation
of Rp 14 billion.
The prosecution then filed an appeal to the high court.
The prosecution had earlier asked the Central Jakarta District
Court to sentence Hasan to eight years in jail. They said that
the defendant, who chaired APHI, had misappropriated $168 million
obtained from the association's members, and another $75 million
of the Ministry of Forestry's reforestation funds.
According to the prosecution, the defendant had assigned PT
Mapindo Parama, to conduct the aerial mapping of 599 forest
concessions. However, the company only completed mapping 81
concessions over a period of eight years, while the Ministry of
Forestry had stipulated that the mapping should be completed
within three years.
Hasan, who briefly served as the minister of trade and
industry under former president Soeharto, is now being detained
in the Cipinang correctional facility, as ordered by the high
court pending the delivery of its verdict.
Hasan's lawyer Augustinus Hutajulu told The Jakarta Post on
Wednesday that he had been informed of the verdict but had yet to
receive a copy of the transcript.
"I can't make any comment on the verdict as I need to know the
legal grounds cited by the bench," he said.
"However, we are going to file an appeal to the Supreme Court
as we are convinced that our client is innocent." (bby)