Heru Andriyanto, Jakarta – Providing a glimpse into the illicit world of high-level bribery, a former district court chief justice arrested for taking bribes said he had used the word "coffee" to ask for payoffs from disgraced tax official Gayus Tambunan.
The judge, Muhtadi Asnun, acquitted Gayus of all charges in March this year in a controversial embezzlement trial.
A major scandal erupted after a police whistle-blower claimed Gayus had bribed police officers, prosecutors and judges. The former tax official is being tried again, this time for corruption.
"Especially for me, please add to the coffee by 100 percent," read a mobile phone text message that Muhtadi allegedly sent to Gayus. The message was read during Gayus's trial at the South Jakarta District Court on Wednesday. "Coffee means money," Muhtadi said after the presiding judge, Albertina Ho, read the text message to the court.
Muhtadi said he had forgotten the reply he received from Gayus, prompting Albertina to read the following message: "When should I deliver the coffee, sir? What about 10 a.m. tomorrow?"
Muhtadi presided over Gayus's trial at the Tangerang District Court in March. The former tax official originally faced charges of money laundering and corruption after Rp 28 billion ($3.1 million) was discovered in his bank accounts. But prosecutors later announced that those charges could not be proven and instead demanded only probation for Gayus for a minor embezzlement charge.
At Wednesday's hearing, Muhtadi said Gayus had offered him Rp 50 million in cash before the verdict was read in the March trial but he had negotiated for a bigger amount.
He reportedly sent another message to Gayus reading "my daughter wants a Honda Jazz, so please add the coffee by another 10,000 kg. Your demand will be met."
He said that was a request for Gayus to double the payment. However, the suspended judge denied that the payment ever materialized, although he did host Gayus in a meeting at his official residence in Tangerang.
Muhtadi claimed that during the meeting he only asked Gayus about a job vacancy at the tax directorate for his daughter. "I asked him about a vacancy in the tax office. But the defendant [Gayus] offered me Rp 50 million in cash.
The payment itself never materialized; it was just an offer," said Muhtadi, who is a defendant in a separate corruption trial taking place at the East Jakarta District Court.
Muhtadi said he got Gayus's phone number from a court clerk in Tangerang he identified only as Ikat. Gayus said during the hearing that he gave $40,000 to three judges – $30,000 for Muhtadi and $5,000 each for two members of the judges' panel.
"I read his request for an additional 10,000 kg as another $10,000, not Rp 50 million," Gayus said in response to Muhtadi's testimony. But he didn't clearly state whether or not the payment was ever made.
The controversial Tangerang trial sparked public outrage after former National Police chief of detectives Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji made high-profile allegations that some of his colleagues at the police accepted multi-billion-rupiah bribes from Gayus.
Last month, an internal inquiry at the Attorney General's Office found that the head prosecutor in the case, Cirus Sinaga, had leaked the sentencing recommendation to Gayus's lawyer, Haposan Hutagalung.
Haposan allegedly doctored the recommendation to read a year in jail in order to extort $50,000 from Gayus before the genuine document seeking only probation was shown to him.