Legal experts warn that light sentences will not stop corruption
Legal experts warn that light sentences will not stop corruption
Muninggar Sri Saraswati
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
Legal experts warned law enforcers that their reluctance to
view corruption as a serious crime would make the country
incapable of fighting corruption.
Lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis and National Ombudsman chief
Antonius Sujata shared the same opinion that light sentences
given by the courts to corruptors -- reflecting the ignorance of
members of the judiciary -- would fail to act as a deterrent to
other corruptors.
"Corruptors will learn that corruption is tolerable. The facts
have shown that some of them can still earn big money without
fearing the sentence, which is very light," Todung told The
Jakarta Post on Saturday.
"Light sentences would only deter a small number of them; it
is much better to prevent more people from committing
corruption," Antonius said.
The former prosecutor said the first two verdicts -- on
Hendrawan Haryono and David Nusa Wijaya -- would affect other
Bank Indonesia Liquidity Support Fund (BLBI) misuse cases, which
are now on trial in several district courts here.
"The two verdicts would become precedents for other, similar
cases," he said.
Last year, the state lost its first legal battle against BLBI
corruption after the South Jakarta District Court acquitted
defendant Hendrawan from graft in misusing Rp 583.4 billion
(US$58.34 million) of the fund. He was convicted only for
violating banking laws.
The court sentenced him to one year in jail and ordered the
former deputy director of now-defunct Bank Aspac to repay Rp 500
million or spend another three months in prison.
Prosecutors earlier demanded that the court sentence the
defendant to five years imprisonment and ordered the return of
the Rp 583.4 billion to the state.
A questionable verdict was delivered again at the West Jakarta
District Court, which last week convicted David, former president
of the now-defunct Bank Umum Servitia, of corruption for misusing
Rp 1.27 trillion of BLBI. But he was only sentenced to one year
in jail and fined Rp 30 million.
The verdict, however, raised public suspicions of foul play in
the case, as prosecutors had earlier demanded the court sentence
the defendant to four years in jail.
Presiding Judge P.A. Sianipar insisted the term was
commensurate with the crime as the defendant was willing to repay
the money misused.
The short sentence given by the panel of judges was considered
by many to allow David time to collect the funds he had misused.
Due to both light sentences, Antonius called on prosecutors to
appeal to a higher court in an effort to get punishments that
fitted the crime.
"A judge should hand down punishments that will prevent the
recurrence of similar crimes," he said.
Currently, 10 defendants are being tried in relation to BLBI
violations. They are former Bank Indonesia directors and bankers
from Bank Dagang Nasional Indonesia, Bank Modern, Bank Umum
Servitia, Bank Umum Nasional, Bank Harapan Sentosa and Bank
Aspac.
The government, through the central bank, disbursed Rp 144.5
trillion from August 1997 to early 1999 to 48 commercial banks
during the monetary crisis.
Ironically, the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) stated in May 1999
that BLBI misappropriation was merely manipulation, although it
caused the state to lose about 95 percent of the funds.
The government announced two years ago that it would send
about 80 BLBI abuse suspects to court in the hope of punishing
them, as well as recovering the funds.