Prosecutors demand 16 years’ jail for politician

JAKARTA: Prosecutors demanded 16 years in prison for a senior Indonesian politician accused of playing a key role in the theft by officials of US$170mil (RM655mil) of public money.

At a sentencing demand hearing yesterday, prosecutors also called for fines and the seizure of Setya Novanto’s (pic) assets if he fails to return US$7.4mil (RM28.5mil) including a US$135,000 (RM520,928) luxury “Richard Mille” watch that he allegedly received as part of the conspiracy.

Anti-corruption police allege Novanto was among about 80 people, mostly officials and legislators, who used the introduction of a US$440mil (RM1.6bil) electronic identity card system in 2011 and 2012 to steal more than a third of the funds.

Novanto, the former Speaker of Indonesia’s parliament and senior member of the Golkar party, denies any wrongdoing.

Prosecutor Irene Putri told the special corruption cases court yesterday that the stolen money flowed through Indonesia, the United States, Mauritius, India, Singapore and Hong Kong as the conspirators sought to hide its illegal origins.

She said the trial has revealed “new methods on how to drain money from the proceeds of crime without going through the national banking system, aiming to avoid the detection of financial authorities in Indonesia”.

The corruption case, brazen and epic even by the standards of Indonesia’s notoriously corrupt parliament, has caused outrage in the world’s third largest democracy.