The panel of judges at the Corruption Court sentenced two former Bank Indonesia officials Oey Hoey Tiong and Rusli Simanjuntak, to four years in prison. Both admitted their guilt in the case of Rp 100 billion misappropriated from the Indonesian Bank Development Foundation in 2003.
The panel of judges, headed by Justice Moefri ruled that both suspects had violated Article 2, section 1 of Law 31/1999 as amended by Law 20/2001 on corruption eradication. Both had personally profited or caused others to profit by misappropriating state funds.
Oey is the former Law Director of Bank Indonesia and Rusli is the former Head of Bank Indonesia's Governor's Bureau . In this case, Oey allocated Rp 68.5 billion to be used for the legal assistance fees of five former Bank Indonesia officials involved in a case relating to the Bank Liquidation Assistance Funds (BLBI). Rusli was responsible for transferring Rp 31.5 billion to Hamka Yandhu and Antony Zeidra Abidin, two members of the Ninth Commission of the House of Representatives (DPR) between 1999-2004. In addition to receiving a sentence of four years imprisonment, the two convicted suspects were required to pay a fine of Rp 200 million or face a further six months in prison.
The judges did not require that Oey repay any money because he did not profit directly from the transaction. Rusli, however, is required to pay compensation of Rp 3 billion for he received this amount during the process of transferring funds to members of the DPR.
When delivering the sentence at the Corruption Court on Wednesday (12/11), the judge said that Oey provided legal advice declaring that Bank Indonesia was able to utilize funds from YPPI. He gave this advice in a meeting with the Governing Board on 3 June 2003. The deputy governor of Bank Indonesia, Bun Bunan EJ Hutapea, acted on this advice when recommending that Bank Indonesia use YPPI's funds. The reason behind this decision was that Bank Indonesia itself did not have an allocated budget for legal assistance for these five former officials. At the same time he requested that money be disseminated for the amendment of the Bank Indonesia Legislation that was before the DPR.
“The agreement to use YPPI funds can not be separated from the legal advice of the accused (Oey Hoey Tiong),' said Justice Sutiyono, one of the presiding judges. Oey, he continued, cannot legally allow Bank Indonesia to use the funds of another organization for central office affairs.
In regards to Rusli, the judges believed that he did not take adequate responsibility of the Rp 31.5 billion that was given to Hamka and Antony. Rusli also profited by pocketing Rp 3 billion after transferring the money to Hamka and Antony.
The judges considered this second act to have caused losses to the nation. An exception was Justice Sofialdi, who dissented. According to Sofialdi, YPPI's funds are not considered to be state funds therefore using them for any purpose does not consitute damages to the nation.
In response to this sentence, Oey and Rusli said they would take some time to consider whether or not they would appeal the sentence. The same stance was taken by the KPK public prosecution team led by Agus Salim.
Source: Republika, 13 November 2008
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