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)