Lawyer arrested for bribery

JAKARTA: A lawyer for suspended Aceh governor Abdullah Puteh has been arrested after being caught red-handed paying Rp 250 million (US$26,300) as a bribe to a Jakarta High Court clerk.

The prosecutor in the Puteh graft case Khaidir Ramli said on Wednesday that he and fellow prosecutors busted the lawyer, Tengku Syaifudin Popon, and the clerk, Syamsul Rizal, while in a meeting at the latter's office on Tuesday afternoon and found the cash kept in a black suitcase.

Khaidir said he received a tip-off from an undisclosed source about the meeting.

"We obtained the information recently, followed it up and found them along with the money," Khaidir said.

Puteh is appealing his 10 year sentence after the Anticorruption Court found him guilty last April of marking up the cost of a Russian-made helicopter purchased with state money. Due to his ill health, the court granted his request for house arrest. -- Antara