Ezra Sihite & Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Government ministers from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) have criticized the Jakarta Anti-Corruption Court's decision to sentence disgraced former party president Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq to 16 years in jail for his part in a beef-import scandal.
Luthfi, from the party known as the PKS, was on Monday was found guilty of receiving bribes from meat wholesaler Indoguna Utama to company to convince the Agriculture Ministry to award it the permit to import an additional 8,000 tons of beef earlier this year.
Social Affairs Minister Salim Segaf Al Jufri, also from the PKS, said on Tuesday that it was unfair that Luthfi received a longer sentence than his former aide, Ahmad Fathanah, who received 14 years.
"In my opinion it's too harsh because Fathanah was the mastermind, where everything started, and who even received the money," said Salim, who is 3also a member of the party's board of advisers.
Communications and Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring also said the sentence was too harsh, and sought to play down the involvement of his fellow party member, adding that Luthfi would appeal the verdict. "Based on the court's findings, Luthfi did not receive the money directly from Indoguna," Tifatul said.
But the minister acknowledged that the sentence should serve as a lesson for other party members. "They should watch [what they are doing], and should not even think about doing the same," Tifatul said. He added that his party would respect the judges' decision.
Former PKS president Hidayat Nur Wahid also criticized the verdict. "This will help unify the PKS because we have been treated unfairly," Hidayat was quoted as saying by Kompas.com on Tuesday. "The law was presented without taking into consideration all the legal facts."
Hidayat said that PKS members who used to look up to Luthfi would only be encouraged to campaign harder. "We will prove that the PKS is not involved and that the parties involved in corruption have been treated unfairly," he said.
Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chairman Bambang Widjojanto said he was happy with the court's 16-year verdict. "Comparing Luthfi's and Fathanah's sentences, I think Luthfi's should be higher," he said.
Bambang said that the verdict was interesting because the panel of judges found Luthfi guilty on charges of both corruption and money laundering.
Meanwhile, Al Muzzammil Yusuf, the PKS deputy chairman of the House of Representatives' Commission III, overseeing legal affairs, called for greater sentencing consistency and suggested that the Anti-Corruption Court choose the same judges to hear the Hambalang sports center case and Bank Century bailout case as had been used in the beef import trial.
Al Muzzammil said that if state losses of Rp 1.3 billion ($109,300) in the beef case could result in a 16-year prison sentence, then the punishment for the Hambalang and Century cases should be longer – given the relatively larger sums of taxpayer money that were involved.
"Let's compare Lutfhi's verdict with several other graft convicts who were sentenced by the Anti-Corruption Court," he said, going on to name a number of high-profile cases for which sentencing, in his view, had been too lenient.
Al Muzzammil cited several former lawmakers and officials, including former Democratic Party legislator Angelina Sondakh, who was sentenced to 12 years, despite, he claimed, costing the state Rp 32 billion in losses after being found guilty of bid-rigging Education Ministry projects; former House Budget Committee member Wa Ode Nurhayati, who was sentenced to six years for her part in a Rp 6.25 billion bribery case; former Democratic Party treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin, who received seven years for bid-rigging Southeast Asian Games construction contracts that cost the state Rp 4.6 billion; and former traffic police chief Djoko Susilo, who was sentenced to 10 years after bid-rigging a driving simulator contract that cost the taxpayer Rp 54 billion.
"The public should question the consistency of the Anti-Corruption Court's judges," Al Muzzammil said.
Luthfi was convicted after a marathon four-hour reading of the verdict at the Jakarta Anti-Corruption Court on Monday. In addition to the long sentence, the court also ordered him to pay Rp 1 billion in fines or serve an extra one year in prison. The sentence was lower than the 18 years in prison and Rp 1.5 billion in fines sought by KPK prosecutors.
"We declare Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq legally and convincingly guilty of conspiring in corruption crime and money laundering," said Judge Gusrizal Lubis.
Indonesia is still ranked as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. In its recently published Corruption Perceptions Index, Transparency International ranked Indonesia in 114th place out of 177 countries surveyed.