Lawyer delivers money upon order
Lawyer delivers money upon order
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A lawyer standing trial for an attempt to bribe the court to win
an appeal in favor of disgraced suspended Aceh governor Abdullah
Puteh denied the accusation on Tuesday, saying he was handing
over the money at the request of a friend of his client.
Defense lawyers for Teuku Syaifuddin alias Popon said their
client was handing over Rp 250 million (US$25,000) in cash
belonging to North Sumatra High Court deputy chief clerk Said
Salim to Jakarta High Court clerk M. Soleh when Corruption
Eradication Commission (KPK) investigators busted them on June
15.
"The facts elicited during the trial reveal that Syaifuddin
was asked by Said Salim to give the money to M. Soleh, and it
(the money) had nothing to do with the case our client was
handling," one of the defense lawyers, Dani Ramon, told the
Anticorruption Court.
Dani said some key witnesses had testified that Syaifuddin was
just acting as a "delivery person".
According to the defendant, Said had given him the cash,
stashed in a black suitcase, in the parking lot of the Supreme
Court in Central Jakarta. The lawyer then attempted to give the
money to M. Soleh in the office of Jakarta High Court deputy
chief clerk Ramadhan Rizal. KPK investigators broke into the room
and arrested the three.
Prosecutors have so far failed to present Said, who suddenly
took a three-year leave of absence without pay just after he was
questioned by KPK investigators.
In his account, which was read out by prosecutors during a
previous session of the trial, Said, a colleague of Puteh's wife
Linda Purnomo, denied Syaifuddin's claim that the two had met for
the purpose of handing over the money. Said claimed he was on a
flight to Jakarta from Medan at the time of his alleged meeting
with Syaifuddin.
Despite the alleged bribery attempt, the Jakarta High Court
upheld the lower court's ruling sentencing Puteh to 10 years in
jail for involvement in the marking up of the price of a
helicopter purchased for the Aceh administration. The high court,
however, found that Puteh had not inflicted losses on the state,
and therefore absolved him of the requirement to pay restitution.
The Supreme Court later upheld the jail sentence and, unlike
the high court, ordered Puteh to pay Rp 6.5 billion in
restitution to the state.
Prosecutors have demanded four years in jail for Syaifuddin.
But his defense lawyers insisted on Tuesday that their client
had known the high court's verdict beforehand despite the fact
that he was handing over the money to court officials.
"His visit was part of his job to monitor developments in his
client's appeal. It's not within the power of court clerks to
determine a verdict," Dani said.
Separately, the KPK said it had set a Nov. 9 deadline for
Puteh to sell his assets to pay restitution to the state. KPK
prosecutor Yessi Esmeralda said a 1,961-square-meter plot of land
in South Jakarta belonging to Puteh was now being sold. The
market value of the plot is estimated at more than Rp 6.5
billion.
If the land remained unsold, the KPK would sell other assets
belonging to Puteh, Yessi said.
A failure to pay restitution would result in Puteh serving
another three years in jail.