Three Indonesian Officials Heading to Prison for Corruption

Jakarta Globe, January 06, 2012

Judges in Bandung’s Anti-Corruption Court sentenced Sunaryo, left,
the deputy mayor of Cirebon, to one year’s jail on Friday. (Antara Photo) 

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Adding to the already long list of officials convicted for corruption, courts have sent a former West Sumatra mayor and two senior figures in Cirebon, West Java, to jail for graft.

The Anti-Corruption Court in Padang, West Sumatra, sentenced Djufri, the former mayor of nearby Bukittinggi, to four years in prison and fined him Rp 200 million ($22,000) for marking up costs for the purchase of several land plots for projects in the city in 2007.

If Djufri could not pay the fine, the judges ruled, he would face an additional six months behind bars.

“All elements of the primary charges were met, so the remaining charges do not need to be proved,” said Asmuddin, who led the panel of judges.

Djufri’s misdeeds caused losses to the state of Rp 704 million, according to prosecutors.

The former mayor said he needed time to discuss with his lawyer, Tumbur Simanjuntak, whether to appeal. Tumbur said he thought Djurfi should appeal and would recommend that he did.

Meanwhile, judges in Bandung’s Anti-Corruption Court sentenced Sunaryo, the deputy mayor of Cirebon, and Suryana, a former Cirebon speaker, to one year’s jail each and fined them each Rp 50 million. Should the convicts not pay the fine, the judge added, they would each be jailed for an additional six months.

“We declare that the first defendant [Sunaryo] and the second defendant [Suryana] have been legally and convincingly found to have engaged in corruption,” said Eka Saharta Winata, who headed the panel of judges.

The two were accused of embezzling Rp 4.9 billion from the city budget in 2004 through markups and fictitious costs in the budget allotment for the operations of the Cirebon city legislative council.

The prosecutors, who had sought a three-year jail term for each of the defendants, demanded time to choose whether to appeal. The judges gave them seven days to decide.

Sunaryo declined to comment to journalists after the verdict, instead referring queries to his legal team.

“Just ask my lawyers,” he said.

Suryana was not present at the reading of the verdict after his lawyer handed the judges a letter from his doctor saying he was ill and unable to attend the trial.

Eko Supijandi, Suryana’s lawyer, said his client had sought to have Thursday’s trial postponed for health reasons, but the request was refused by the judges. Eko declined to say what Suryana was suffering from.