Timber tycoon 'Bob' Hasan sent to jail

Timber tycoon 'Bob' Hasan sent to jail

JAKARTA (JP): Timber tycoon Mohamad "Bob" Hasan was sent to
Salemba Penitentiary in Central Jakarta on Tuesday following a
Jakarta High Court decision to lift his house arrest.

Prosecutor Arnold Angkaw said Hasan began serving his jail
term at 11 a.m.

In the prison, Hasan shares a two-meter by 2.5-meter room with
East Timorese prointegration fighter Eurico Guterres, who is
being tried here for illegal gun possession, and one other
prisoner, detik.com reported.

Toga Effendi, an employee at the prison, said the facility,
which has a capacity of 753 people, held 1,856 detainees.

Hasan was sent to jail based on the high court's decision
dated Feb. 10, signed by the court chief, I Gede Sidharta. The
high court lifted the house arrest in response to the
prosecutor's appeal against the Central Jakarta District Court's
controversial verdict on Hasan.

On Feb. 2, a three-member panel of judges, presided over by
Subardi, sentenced Hasan to two years under house arrest -- a
decision that sparked controversy and drew strong criticism from
the public.

The judges found Hasan, former chairman of the Indonesian
Forest Concessionaires Association, guilty of misusing US$75
million in forestry funds belonging to the Ministry of Forestry.

But the defendant was exonerated from charges of fraudulent
use of US$168 million funds for aerial mapping conducted by the
defendant's company, PT Mapindo Parama, between 1989 and 1999.
According to the judges, it was a civil case between the company
and the association.

The judges also fined Hasan Rp 15 million and told him to
return Rp 14.1 billion to the state.

Prosecutors had earlier sought an eight-year prison term for
Hasan, along with a Rp 30 million fine and an obligation to repay
US$243.7 million in state losses.

Hasan, 70, the minister of industry and trade in 1997, is the
first of former president Soeharto's cronies to be tried for
corruption.

In handing down the verdict, the Central Jakarta District
Court took into consideration as a mitigating element the fact
that Hasan had dedicated himself to national sports.

Hasan is chairman of the Indonesian Track and Field
Association and a member of the International Olympics Committee.
The National Sports Council is still waiting for an official
letter from the organization regarding the fate of his membership
after being convicted of corruption.

The Attorney General's Office is also investigating Hasan's
alleged involvement in another corruption case.

Prosecutors suspect that Hasan, a former chief patron of the
Association of Indonesian Wood Panel Producers, and Asmaning
Tjipto Wignjoprajitno, its former chairman, had misappropriated
some $84 million. The money, allocated for export promotions,
came from the monthly dues of the association's members. (sim)