Heru Andriyanto, Jakarta – Even though Gayus Tambunan is facing trial for the second time this year, attempts to unravel the truth as to how this former mid-ranking tax official amassed Rp 28 billion ($3.1 million) in his bank accounts appear set to fall flat yet again.
Gayus's defense team warned at his trial this week that his cooperation with police during their investigation into the funds would be rendered useless if prosecutors limited the indictment to minor tax infringement and bribing law enforcers, essentially overlooking where the money actually came from.
The defense, led by veteran lawyer Adnan Buyung Nasution, slammed the attempt to reduce the case to mere tax evasion and bribery as "a public lie."
"The case should have served as an extraordinary entry point to uncover and combat corruption involving the tax office, police, prosecutors and the courts," Adnan told the South Jakarta District Court on Monday.
He asked the court to delay the trial until prosecutors came up with a complete case that accounted for the Rp 28 billion.
Adnan's comments reflect worries that Gayus's second trial will follow in much the same manner as his first, when prosecutors recommended just one year in jail for Gayus for embezzling Rp 375 million from a South Korean businessman, glossing over the source of the rest of the funds.
The Tangerang District Court acquitted Gayus of the watered-down embezzlement charge in March, in spite of a report by the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) that had flagged the money in his accounts as highly suspicious.
The scandal was only brought to light when the former National Police chief of detectives, Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji, alleged that some of his colleagues in the force had received bribes from Gayus.
The revelation triggered a series of high-profile arrests, including that of the chief of the Tangerang district court, two police officers, lawyers, suspected case brokers, Gayus himself and even his former superiors at the tax office.
And yet criminal charges still prove elusive for prosecutors involved in Gayus's trial and two police generals who are widely believed to have been at the center of Susno's accusation.
"The indictment does not mention the source of the funds, the alleged crime concerning the frozen funds or the people who channeled the money to the defendant," Adnan said.
"The indictment, to our surprise, mainly concerns another case of state losses allegedly as a result of miscalculations by the defendant in handling the paperwork of Surya Alam Tunggal, valued at only Rp 570.95 million, which is miniscule compared to the Rp 28 billion found in his bank accounts."
Meanwhile, Emerson Yuntho, deputy chairman of Indonesia Corruption Watch, on Tuesday also expressed concerns about the Gayus case. "I can confidently say that the current trial will be a boring sequel of the first," he said.
"In the [Tangerang] court, the Rp 28 billion was covered up so that it could be distributed among law enforcers handling the case. The accounts were unfrozen shortly after prosecutors dropped money-laundering charges against Gayus. And now in the South Jakarta court, the accounts haven't even rated a mention in an attempt to protect high-ranking police officers and prosecutors from prosecution."
Adnan said Gayus had told investigators he bribed police officers with $700,000 to avoid arrest and to stop them from seizing his home and probing his bank accounts. He also said Gayus claimed he paid off police to lift the freeze on his Rp 28 billion.
During testimony against several other defendants in separate trials, Gayus has also said he bribed Tangerang court chief Muhtadi Asnun with $40,000 to secure his acquittal in March.