Jakarta – The civil servant who set off a national corruption scandal when he released 3.9 million dollars of state funds a year ago was convinced he was acting on the orders of Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid, a court heard Tuesday.

Wahid, implicated by a parliamentary panel of playing a role in the disbursement of the funds, has been censured by MPs over the "Bulogate" scandal, and urged to resign or face impeachment.

A lawyer for Sapuan, the sacked deputy head of the state food agency Bulog, told the South Jakarta District Court that his client was merely following a request passed on to him via a man said to have been Wahid's private masseur, Alip Agung Suwondo.

"Sapuan's act of disbursing Yanatera (Bulog pension fund) funds was in fulfilment of a request from the president which was delivered by Suwondo," lawyer Mohammed Assegaf told the panel of judges. "Sapuan could not refuse a presidential request, because he was beholden to a request which could not be ignored."

Assegaf asked the court to clear his client of all wrongdoing in the case. "He didn't benefit from a single bit of the disbursed money. That money instead went to the coffers of people who are close to Gus Dur [Wahid's nickname]," the defence lawyer said.

"Based on these facts, we ask the judges to declare the defendant's act an unpunishable crime, and clear him of any charges."

State prosecutors have asked the court to sentence Sapuan, who faces a maximum of four years' imprisonment, to 18 months in jail.

Chief prosecutor Nuris Sembiring told the court two weeks ago that Sapuan had "coerced" the Yanatera directors into handing over two cheques in January of 2000, by arguing that the order had come from the president.

"The defendant Sapuan has been proven to have used persuasion in a criminal act of embezzlement which became a continuing process," Sembiring said.

Wahid has admitted that he discussed with Sapuan the possibility of using the funds for humanitarian projects in strife-torn Aceh, but insists he withdrew his request when he learned that a presidential decree was required.

The 50-member panel of legislators also implicated Wahid in a second scandal surrounding a two million dollar donation from the Sultan of Brunei, which the MPs said he had failed to account for.

Police have said that they will again question Wahid – who has declared his innocence in both cases, and vowed to serve out the rest of his term until 2004 – over the Bulogate case, but have yet to set a date.