Prosecutors dismiss Akbar's defense

Prosecutors dismiss Akbar's defense

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Prosecutors on Wednesday rejected the defense statement by House
Speaker Akbar Tandjung in the Rp 40 billion (US$4.4 million)
graft scandal dubbed Buloggate II, insisting he receive a four-
year prison sentence.

Prosecutor Fachmi denounced Akbar's defense as a personal
expression of disappointment that carried no legal basis.

The House speaker, along with codefendants Dadang Sukandar and
Winfried Simatupang, is charged with abusing Rp 40 billion in
funds belonging to state-owned State Logistics Agency (Bulog)
while he was minister/state secretary in 1999.

Fachmi pointed out that Winfried later returned the money
although Akbar had earlier claimed the money was spent in a
project which Winfried led to channel food aid through an Islamic
foundation chaired by Dadang.

"If Akbar's defense is true, than the third defendant
(Winfried) wouldn't have to return the money to the state and
apologize," Fachmi was quoted as saying by Antara.

He was reading out the response to Akbar's defense during the
public court hearing, which because of its public attention, was
held at the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) office in
Kemayoran, North Jakarta.

Prosecutors believe the food distribution never took place.
There has also been public suspicion that the money was intended
to fund Golkar's campaign -- the party Akbar chairs.

Prosecutors however fell short of examining where the money
went to, especially after Winfried returned it.

In their charges, they demanded Akbar serve a four-year jail
term, and his codefendants each three-and-a-half years.

Corruption carries a minimum sentence of four years in prison
and a maximum of 20 years according to the 2001 revision of the
1999 Anticorruption Law. Under extraordinary cases the crime may
carry the death penalty.

Prosecutors also demanded the three defendants each pay a Rp
10 million fine or otherwise serve another three months in jail.

The prosecutor's refusal to change their charges comes as a
bitter birthday present for Akbar who turned 57 on Wednesday.

The Golkar chairman has had a successful political life. Akbar
succeeded in preserving the party's political clout despite mass
condemnation of its support for Soeharto's iron-fisted rule.

In his defense delivered on July 24, he described himself as a
victim of a conspiracy to squash his political career. Akbar's
lawyers aired similar suspicions in their defense statement.

Buloggate II followed a similar case implicating former
president Abdurrahman Wahid in 2000. Buloggate I snowballed into
a political dispute between the House and Abdurrahman that cost
him his presidency. He was later acquitted of the charges.

But the notion that Buloggate II was purely a political ploy
was gunned down by the prosecution.

"It was an expression of feelings by the defense team, which
tried to describe the defendant within his political world,"
Fachmi said. The same he said of Akbar's defense.

Following the hearing, one of Akbar's lawyer Amir Syamsuddin
dismissed the prosecutors' response as a rehash of their charges.

Presiding Judge Amirruddin Zakaria adjourned the hearing until
August 21 to hear the defense team's rebuttal.