The Corruption Court sentenced disgraced prosecutor Urip Tri Gunawan to 20 years in jail Thursday for taking a US$660,000 bribe to drop a major embezzlement case against fugitive tycoon Sjamsul Nursalim.
On the same day, Attorney General Hendarman Supandji said his office was investigating 11 other prosecutors who allegedly conspired with Urip to halt the probe into Sjamsul’s involvement in the embezzlement of the Bank Indonesia liquidity support (BLBI) funds.
“The defendant has been proved legally and convincingly guilty of abusing and commercializing his position for his personal gain,” presiding judge Teguh Haryanto said.
The panel of judges also fined Urip Rp 500 million (about US$54,350), with failure to pay resulting in an additional year in prison.
The 20-year sentence was five years longer than the jail term sought by prosecutors from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), who had also requested a Rp 250 million fine for Urip.
In sentencing Urip, the judges listed aggravating circumstances.
“As a law enforcer the defendant has not supported the government’s efforts to eradicate corruption, and he has tainted the image and credibility of the Attorney General’s Office (AGO),” Teguh said.
He said Urip had been discriminatory in upholding the law, had never confessed his crime and had been circuitous when testifying in court.
Furthermore, the judges added, Urip was proved to have extorted Rp 1 billion from the former chief of the now-defunct Indonesian Banking Restructuring Agency, Glenn M. Yusuf, through his lawyer Reno Iskandarsyah.
“This (heavier sentence) is also an effort to deter other law enforcers so they will change their permissive attitude toward corruption,” Teguh said.
Urip led an AGO team investigating the embezzlement of Rp 28.4 trillion disbursed under the BLBI scheme to tycoon Sjamsul Nursalim, former owner of the liquidated Bank Dagang Nasional Indonesia (BDNI).
On Feb. 29, 2008, the AGO dropped two BLBI cases against Sjamsul and another tycoon Anthony Salim, citing a lack of evidence.
Two days later, the KPK arrested Urip for taking $660,000 from Artalyta Suryani, a businesswoman linked to Sjamsul, as a “gift” for his service in giving information and helping the tycoon evade three BLBI summonses by the AGO.
In response to the sentence, Urip said he understood the verdict and would consider lodging an appeal.
Indonesia Corruption Watch legal researcher Febri Diansyah said the Urip case should be seen as only a small part of the bigger graft scandal — the BLBI.
“The KPK should not ignore the indications other AGO prosecutors were involved in the case, including former assistant attorney general for special crimes Kemas Yahya Rahman and former director of special criminal investigations Muhammad Salim,” he said.
Febri said there was no reason for the KPK not to investigate those senior prosecutors.
Speaking in Semarang, Central Java, Attorney General Hendarman said there were 11 prosecutors who might have “conspired” with Urip to help have the BLBI cases dropped.
“We are still investigating them. There is no evidence as yet of their involvement in the case,” he said Thursday.
He said that, according to information he had received, the 11 prosecutors helped Urip design a legal opinion pertaining to the BLBI probe.
Hendarman said the 11 were among the 35 prosecutors who handled the BLBI cases, but refused to identify them.
He added that Urip was the only one involved in the bribery case.
Suherjoko contributed to this story from Semarang.
By Irawaty Wardany
Source : The Jakarta Post
