Jakarta – The Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK) called on the police and prosecutors to apply the money laundering law as a legal basis for seizing the wealth of graft suspects.
PPATK chief Muhammad Yusuf said that the Law No. 20/2001 on Corruption Eradication was not enough to scare off corrupt government officials and the No. 8/2010 Money Laundering Law could in fact be used to provide a deterrent effect.
"For example, the money laundering law gives the authority to law enforcers to stop a suspicious transaction as part of an effort to save state assets. It also allows nonconviction asset forfeiture to take away assets from graft convicts," Yunus said.
PPATK now keeps tabs on more than 11 million cash transactions, which could be related to corruption.
Prominent attorney Adnan Buyung Nasution said, however, that law enforcement agencies should be more careful in pursuing efforts to send graft suspects into poverty.
"There is no problem with the effort. But remember, the graft suspect must first be found guilty of corruption," he said. Adnan said that the authorities should also work more efficiently to follow the money trail.
"We are now focusing too much on following the suspect. This takes a tremendous amount of resources. What is needed is following suspicious transactions, especially in the tax office," she said.
Adnan added that it would be easier for prosecutors to shift the burden of proof to graft suspects. Article 77 of the money laundering law stipulates that a defendant must provide proof that his assets did not come from illicit practices.
Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chairman Bambang Widjojanto supported the idea of seizing the wealth of graft suspects but warned against difficulties in applying the measures, especially at the court level.
"We also have Article 39 of the Criminal Code as the legal basis for seizing assets from graft suspects, on top of the money laundering law. But we need more than that; we need to have a consensus among the judges on which legal basis they will use," he said.
A number of judges at the Corruption Court have ordered some graft convicts to return their ill-gotten assets to the state as well as ordering them to pay heavy fines or face a harsher jail term if they failed to do so.
A panel of judges at the Bandung Corruption Court recently ordered former judge Imas Dianasari to pay Rp 200 million (US$22,400) in fines on top of a six-year jail term.
Constitutional Court judge Akil Mochtar said that the idea of making graft convicts poor did not contradict the state constitution. "From the constitutional point of view, this idea is feasible," he said. (fzm)