Novianti Setuningsih & Ezra Sihite, Jakarta – Indonesia's antigraft commission has denied approving the Justice Ministry's recent decision to free five corruption convicts on parole, saying none of them should have qualified for early release.
Johan Budi, a spokesman for the Corruption Eradication Commission, or KPK, confirmed in Jakarta on Monday that the Justice Ministry had sought to have the convicts in question categorized as "justice collaborators," or helpful witnesses in uncovering graft cases, which is one of the requirements for a corruption convict to be eligible for parole.
"But that request was denied. We didn't give the recommendation" for the convicts to be recognized as justice collaborators, Johan said.
Among those granted early release last week was Siti Hartati Murdaya, a businesswoman who bankrolled President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's 2009 re-election bid and was jailed last year for bribing a district chief in exchange for a plantation concession.
In addition to not qualifying as a justice collaborator, Hartati had also not served enough time to be eligible for parole. She was released 18 months into a 32-month sentence, but a 2012 regulation on parole stipulates that a convict can only qualify for early release after serving at least two-thirds of their sentence, or 21 months in Hartati's case.
Justice Minister Amir Syamsuddin, who served alongside Hartati, 70, on the Democratic Party's board of advisers before the latter resigned after being charged, claimed that the parole was granted in consideration of her age.
"There are special things for those who are elderly," he said earlier this month as quoted by Detik.com, but did not elaborate on what those "things" were. He did, however, concede that "this policy is not popular."
Other convicts who were granted parole in spite of not meeting the requirements were I Nyoman Suisnaya, a former official from the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry, and Fahd El Fouz, a businessman and fixer in various government projects. The pair were convicted for their roles in bribing members of the House of Representatives to approve funding for certain regions.
Also approved for early release were former Semarang city councilors Sumartono and Agung Purno Sarjono, who were jailed for embezzling funds from the Central Java capital's budget.
Handoyo Sudrajat, the Justice Ministry's director general for corrections, whose office is responsible for handling parole requests, denied that his office had done anything wrong.
"In principle, any convict who meets the administrative and substantive requirements [...] has to be processed fairly," he said on Monday. He did not comment on the KPK's refusal to recognize the five convicts as justice collaborators.
Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/kpk-reveals-four-ineligible-graft-convicts-paroled-hartati/