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.