Puteh seeks release to help relief work

Puteh seeks release to help relief work

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Abdullah Puteh, who has been suspended by President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono as the Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam governor while
facing trial on graft charges, appealed to the Anticorruption
Court on Monday to release him to allow him to join relief
efforts in his homeland.

After the third hearing, Puteh said he wished to return home
to the devastated province as a volunteer.

"I will be a volunteer, not a state official," he told
reporters as he left the courtroom to be taken back to his cell
at Salemba Penitentiary in Central Jakarta. Puteh has been
detained there since December.

The suspended governor, who lost two cousins in the Dec. 26
calamity, said he would write to President Susilo, offering a
list of suggestions to speed up the distribution of aid in Aceh.

"I've been thinking of several technical steps to cope with
the disaster in Aceh. I'll suggest eight steps to the President,
including establishing tents and public kitchens in parts of Aceh
that were not devastated by the tidal waves," he said.

The letter would also include an appeal for his release from
detention, Puteh added.

In Monday's hearing, Puteh's team of lawyers asked the court
to accept their appeal for the release of their client.

Puteh and his lawyers had filed a similar demand for his
release when the court opened his corruption trial a week ago.
His wife, Linda Poernomo, lawyers and Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso
gave their guarantee that the suspect would not try to skip the
trial, destroy evidence or hamper the work of the prosecution.

Puteh was arrested late last year following a request of the
Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), which investigated his
alleged markup scam.

He is charged with marking up the price of a Russian
helicopter bought for the Aceh provincial administration, causing
some Rp 10 billion (US$ 10.6 million) in losses to the state.

The governor could face a maximum sentence of life and a Rp 1
billion fine if convicted.

Legal experts and anticorruption activists have seen the Puteh
case as a key test for the current government in its national
drive to speed up the completion of graft cases the country.

At the same trial, prosecutors rejected defense pleas by
Puteh's lawyers that the case against their client be dismissed
by the court because the purchase occurred before the KPK came
into existence.

The lawyers earlier accused the KPK of applying the
retroactive principle as the commission was set up in 2002, while
the Puteh case took place in 2001.

In response, chief prosecutor Khaidir Ramli said the
commission was charging the defendant under the 1999 Antigraft
Law.

The KPK also named Bram Manoppo, the director of a company
that brokered the purchase of the helicopter, as another suspect
in the same case. He attended Monday's hearing.