Padang councillors jailed for corruption

Syofiardi Bachyul Jb, The Jakarta Post, Padang

Thirteen out of 45 Padang councillors were sentenced to four years in jail each on Tuesday following their convictions on graft charges.

In a precedent-setting case, the councillors were also ordered to return the money they had misappropriated to the tune of between Rp 207 million and Rp 324 million each. The jail sentences were lighter than had been sought by the prosecution, which had recommended six years in jail for each of the councillors.

The 13 councillors were tried for misappropriating Rp 8.4 billion (US$893,700) from the 2001 and 2002 Padang municipal budgets.

Of the 13 councillors, all of whom served on the Padang city council between 1999 and 2004, three were former council leaders, namely, Maigus Nasie, the former council speaker, and deputy speakers Muhidi and Chairul Indra.

The court, which was presided over by Judge Busra, said in its verdict that the councillors were guilty of misappropriating state funds for their personal enrichment. They had passed the budget for the municipal council, but the budget had violated the relevant legislation on local government budgeting.

Busra said that if the councillors had adhered to the legislation, they would have only awarded themselves allowances amounting to Rp 3 million per month for the council speaker, Rp 2.6 million for each deputy speaker and Rp 2 million for each council member. "But, the defendants obtained much more than that through financial engineering involving the council budget," said Busra.

Busra did not give any details on how much money had illegally accrued to each councillor, saying only that under the 2001 budget, the 45 councillors had profited to the tune of Rp 2.35 billion in monthly allowances, while in 2002 the equivalent figure had been Rp 2.98 billion per month.

The case surfaced last year when 40 out of a total of 45 councillors were named suspects in the case. The remaining five councillors were not charged as suspects by the civilian prosecutors as four of them were Indonesian military (TNI) officers and the other had died.

The 40 councillors went on trial in March of last year.

The thirteen councilors were sentenced on Tuesday, while the remaining 27 are still on trial in the same district court. Two weeks ago, Padang prosecutors urged the court to sentence the 27 councillors to six years in jail.

The prosecution of the 40 councillors was among the first such cases in the country. Since then, similar prosecutions have been brought in many other areas.