Puteh refuses imprisonment, claims he has heart problems
Puteh refuses imprisonment, claims he has heart problems
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Former Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam governor Abdullah Puteh told
prosecutors on Tuesday he was too ill to go to prison as he was
still being treated at a Jakarta hospital for a heart disease.
Puteh is the first top bureaucrat to be found guilty of
embezzlement since President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono launched an
intensive antigraft campaign after his election last year.
After finding him guilty of embezzlement in the 2001 purchase
of a Russian-made MI-2 helicopter for the province -- which
inflicted losses of Rp 3.6 billion (US$400,800) on the state --
Puteh was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment by the
Anticorruption Court.
However, Puteh's lawyers came to the Corruption Eradication
Commission (KPK) office early in the day on Tuesday, which was to
have been Puteh's first day behind bars, to inform the commission
that he was still being treated at the MH Thamrin Hospital in
Central Jakarta.
KPK officials said the lawyers had produced a letter from
Puteh's doctors explaining his condition.
Puteh's case has been a controversial one. A week after the
Anticorruption Court issued its verdict, the Jakarta High Court
granted Puteh city arrest status due to his poor health.
In the middle of this month, Puteh's lawyer Tengku Syaifudin
Popon was caught red-handed by KPK investigators paying a Rp 250
million bribe to a Jakarta High Court clerk in what appeared to
be an attempt to influence the appeals court. The next day the
bribery case became headline news when the Jakarta High Court
decided to uphold the 10-year prison sentence ruling.
The bribery case itself has highlighted the problem of rampant
corruption in the country's weak judiciary system, with the
Supreme Court saying it will investigate the case.
KPK prosecutor Khaidir Ramli came to see Puteh at 12 p.m. on
Tuesday and talked with him for about an hour in his VIP hospital
room.
"We can't force him (Puteh) to come with us because of his
(weak) condition," Khaidir said.
Khaidir, however, said Puteh looked healthy, although the
doctor's letter stated otherwise.
Meanwhile, KPK deputy chairman Tumpak Hatorangan Panggabean
said that the commission would seek a second opinion on Puteh's
condition from doctors at the Harapan Kita Hospital.
A team of doctors at the MH Thamrin Hospital had previously
said that Puteh was suffering from epididymitis (a secondary
bacterial infection) and varicocele (a varicose enlargement of
the veins of the spermatic cord). He underwent surgery on March
31.
Tumpak said that according to the court ruling, Puteh would be
detained at Salemba Penitentiary in Central Jakarta.
The KPK was slated to hold a meeting late on Tuesday to
discuss the new development in the case.
Meanwhile, seven members of the Gegana bomb squad were seen
guarding the KPK's office on Jl. Veteran III, Central Jakarta,
amid recent bomb threats.