Sidoarjo council speaker stands trial for corruption
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.