Peter Alford – Corrupt taxman Gayus Tambunan, whose exposure demonstrated the malignancy of Indonesia's "judicial mafia", has been jailed for seven years.
The 31-year-old yesterday accused the authorities of turning him into a "political commodity" to divert attention from evidence of massive corruption in the tax administration.
The low-ranked Jakarta tax official is suspected of receiving at least 102 billion rupiah ($11.2 million) in bribes from 44 companies whose tax liabilities he agreed to reduce.
"The image has been created I'm the No 1 criminal in Indonesia," Gayus said yesterday after his conviction. "But from the beginning I was fully committed to helping the Judicial Mafia Taskforce, especially (presidential anti-corruption adviser) Denny Indrayana... so the country can be better."
Prosecutors from the Attorney-General's Office – which the case has shown to be severely compromised by judicial corruption – said last night they would appeal against the leniency of Gayus's sentence.
His sentencing on charges of corruption, conspiracy and causing the state losses of Rp570.9 million in the case of a single company came two days after President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered ministers and officials to intensify efforts to clean up the corruption and tax evasion laid bare by the case.
Gayus ostensibly has been co-operating with the police investigation and the president's Judicial Mafia Taskforce since he was brought back from Singapore by Mr Denny last March. His evidence has helped convict and jail two mid-ranking police officers, a judge, a "case broker" and several business associates. A former head of the national police's detective division and his superior at the tax office are on trial and several prosecutors are under investigation.
Gayus's former lawyer, prominent Jakarta advocate Haposan Hutagalung, is awaiting verdicts on his charges of bribery and forging court documents. But the big fish in the scandal – notably two national police generals, senior attorney-general's officials and executives of the companies who bribed him – remain untouched.
Nor have the police attempted to investigate Gayus's allegation that he took $US3 million in payments from three companies controlled by the Bakrie family, whose head, Aburizal Bakrie, is chairman of the Golkar Party and a likely contender for the presidency in 2014.
Public outrage has reached a new pitch since it was revealed that, while in police custody during the investigations, Gayus had bribed his way out of jail 68 times.
Last November, he was photographed in disguise at an international tennis tournament in Bali – a revelation that knocked President Barack Obama's historic visit off national front pages. And it recently emerged he had also travelled on a false passport to Singapore, Macau and Malaysia.
The scandal first came to light last March when a disaffected former detective chief at the national police, Susno Duadji, exposed the fixing of Gayus's first prosecution by a network of senior police, prosecutors, judges and "case brokers".
After Gayus was acquitted, Susno, now on trial, accused two police brigadier-generals, Raja Erizman and Edmon Ilyas, of direct involvement in fixing the case. Neither has been charged.