Man faces trial for corruption

SERANG, West Java: The district court will open the trial of a land broker accused of embezzling Rp 1.9 billion (US$850,000) in a fund earmarked for land acquisition.

The suspect, H. Bah, 43, will be charged with embezzling the money of the Golden Key Group, which was to acquire land worth Rp 4 billion for the expansion of its chemical factory in 1990.

Bah used to be a trustee of the company's president director Eddy Tansil, who has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after he was convicted of abusing US$620 million for the project last year.

A spokesman for the Serang district court, Soedardji, told Antara yesterday that Bah, who has been detained since Aug. 2, will be tried in the middle of this month.

Bah, he said, was reported to the police by the company after he failed to account for the Rp 1.9 billion of the Rp 4 billion he received from Golden Key.

Sources at the district court said that Bah is also facing other charges of collaborating with local government officials and selling 6.4 hectares of state land to Golden Key. (pan)