KPU member could face life sentence for graft

KPU member could face life sentence for graft

Tb. Arie Rukmantara, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The corruption trial of former General Elections Commission (KPU)
member Rusadi Kantaprawira began on Wednesday, with the court
hearing that the defendant used his position in charge of
procuring ink for last year's elections to enrich himself.

Rusadi, 63, who headed the committee that procured the
indelible ink used to mark voters' fingers, was charged under
Article 2 of Anticorruption Law No. 20/2001 for enriching
himself, others or companies. The crime, prosecutors said,
resulted in Rp 4.6 billion (about US$460,000) in state losses.

The article carries a jail sentence of between four years and
life, and a fine of between Rp 200 million and Rp 1 billion.

"The defendant directly appointed seven companies to supply
the ink, violating a presidential decree that states direct
appointments are allowed only in a state of emergency,"
prosecutor Sarjono Turin told the Anticorruption Court in Central
Jakarta.

Prosecutors from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK)
also charge that Rusadi, a professor of constitutional law at
Padjadjaran University, violated Presidential Decree No. 80/2003
on the provision of goods and services for state institutions.

The decree requires transparent tenders in which as many
companies as possible are given the fair opportunity to
participate.

"The defendant also set the price (of the ink) based on the
average price quotations offered by the companies. This also
contradicts the presidential decree, which requires a procurement
committee to set an estimated price," Sarjono said.

Of the seven companies appointed by Rusadi and his committee
to supply the ink for the elections, four of the companies
imported the ink from India, while three other companies supplied
a locally made product.

Prosecutors also charged that the four companies that imported
the ink funded a trip by Rusadi to India to visit ink factories
in Mumbai and Goa.

"The defendant, along with two other KPU members, had already
received Rp 81.3 million from the KPU for the trip," Sarjono
said.

Another prosecutor, Suwarji, said the defendant received Rp 70
million in kickbacks from one of the seven companies that won the
tender.

"The money was handed over shortly after the KPU completed the
procurement payment," Suwarji said.

Defense lawyer Hotman Paris Hutapea asked the panel of judges
to release his client from detention.

"My client was arrested for no reason. The KPK came up with
the evidence only after he was in jail. I demand the court
release him from detention," said the prominent lawyer, who says
he is representing Rusadi free of charge.

Rusadi has been detained since July 18, shortly after KPK
investigators arrested him and four other KPU officials in
connection with corruption at the poll body.

KPU member Mulyana W. Kusumah was convicted of bribing a state
auditor and sentenced to 31 months in prison in September, while
acting KPU secretary-general received a 30-month jail sentence in
the same case.

Commission chairman Nazaruddin Sjamsuddin and treasurer
Hamdani Amin are standing trial separately for receiving
kickbacks from companies that won KPU tenders to supply election
materials.

Despite Hamdani's testimony that all nine election commission
members received kickbacks, the KPK has not launched
investigations into other current and former KPU members,
including Hamid Awaluddin and Anas Urbaningrum. Hamid is now the
minister of justice and human rights, while Anas has quit the KPU
to join President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party.