Sidoarjo council speaker stands trial for corruption
ID Nugroho, Surabaya
The trial of Sidoarjo, East Java legislative council speaker Usman Iksan in a corruption scam involving more than Rp 20 billion (US$2.2 million) opened here on Wednesday.
Prosecutors charged the defendant with embezzling taxpayers' money from the 2003 city budget, some 20 kilometers from the provincial capital of Surabaya.
Usman should be found guilty for stealing the money by creating fictitious projects such as training seminars, operational assistance programs and charity activities, they added.
The case surfaced after auditors from the local prosecutor's office discovered financial irregularities in the budget.
The report found markups of at least Rp 20 billion in funds allocated to support the Sidoarjo council's operational activities.
The charges against Usman were laid after prosecutors grilled former council secretary Sunaryati and local administration's finance head Nunik Aryani in the same scandal.
The investigation concluded that Usman allegedly played a key role in the markup case, while the two other officials were not charged.
However, his lawyer Bramta J. Ketaren said his client denied any wrongdoing. "It's not corruption but an administrative error," Bramta said recently.
Wednesday's trial started at around 10:30 a.m. amid tight police guard. All visitors were asked to give the guards their ID cards and then were examined by metal detectors before entering the courtroom.
Usman, wearing a black cap, arrived 10 hours earlier in a standard government detention van belonging to the prosecutors and escorted by police officers.
He was not allowed to speak with the press.
When presiding judge Ahmad Yamari opened the trial, the defendant directly voiced his objection to the hearing without his lawyers present.
"I raise this objection because my team of lawyers is not here," he told the judges.
The judges asked where his lawyers were, but Usman simply replied, "I don't know. I lost contact with them".
The judges later decided to adjourn the hearing until next week.
Chief prosecutor Wilhelmus Lingitubun said he could accept the decision. "We respect what the panel of judges has decided on because the defendant was not accompanied by his lawyers," he added.
In the meantime, local anticorruption watchdog activist Dandi Sunanto criticized the judges for failing to carry out justice, which the public wants, as the graft case had only implicated the council speaker.
"It was not only Usman Iksan who should have been dragged to court, but Sidoarjo Regent Win Hendrarso as well because he also approved the disbursement of the money," he told The Jakarta Post.
Dandi, from the Upholding Reform group, argued that it was impossible from a legal standpoint that the Rp 20 billion could be disbursed without the official endorsement of the regent.
Win should therefore be held responsible too for the corruption case, Dandi added.
He said other councillors who benefited from the ill-gotten money must also face trial.
"Logically, the money must have been enjoyed collectively by all the council members," Dandi added.
The trial comes amidst several other graft cases involving whole legislative bodies in provinces, municipalities and regencies across the country.
Last month, almost all members of the West Sumatra council were jailed for their roles in a collective graft case.