Probosutedjo to stand trial for graft

JAKARTA: The stepbrother of former president Soeharto, Probosutedjo, is scheduled to stand trial on Sept. 5 at the Central Jakarta District Court for allegedly misusing Rp 49 billion of state reforestation funds.

Court spokesman Andi Samsan Nganro said the case would be handled by a panel of judges comprising Muhammad Saleh, Pramodhana K. Kusumah Atmadja and Andi himself.

Businessman Probosutedjo is accused of marking up the state reforestation project in Kalimantan. His company claimed to handle some 70,000 hectares of land while in fact it only dealt with 40,000 hectares in Kalimantan.

The court is also scheduled on Sept. 5 to start the corruption trial of two members of the General Elections Commission (KPU), Clara Sitompul of the Krisna Party and Bambang Mintoko of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan).

Clara and Bambang, along with two administrative staff of KPU who will also be tried separately, allegedly marked up the fund for making political party banners for the 1999 election, causing the state to suffer a loss of Rp 5.9 billion.

They claimed that they had made 960,000 flags, whereas the actual number was 240,000.

The cases will be handled by judges Sirande Palayukan, Budi Dwiarso S. and Asep Irwan Iriawan. --JP