Jakarta – Anas Urbaningrum's slow-motion fall from grace ended with a softer thud than many had expected on Wednesday, after the Jakarta Anti-Corruption Court sentenced the former Democratic Party chair to only eight years in prison.
The verdict brought an end to another act in a scandal of greed and politics almost Shakespearean in its depth – although it is likely the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) will appeal the sentence.
"The defendant is proven validly and convincingly guilty of sustained corruption and repeated money laundering," the presiding judge told Anas.
The court fined Anas Rp 300 million ($25,000) and ordered him to repay Rp 57 billion. Anas could face an additional two years in prison for failing to return the stolen money to state coffers and another three months if he failed to pay the fine.
It was alleged Anas received money in exchange for handing a friendly company a contract to build an elite athletics training center in West Java. Instead the court said Anas was guilty of "sustained corruption."
Before the court session, Anas said he would use the following week to decide his next legal move but he afterwards dismissed the judges' decision.
"The charges are unfair, the demands are unfair, the verdicts are unfair. The only thing left is to ask justice from God," Anas told members of the media swarming around him outside the courtroom.
His remarks were met with cheers from the dozens of people from the Islamic Students Association (HMI) who waited outside. The HMI members also chanted prayers and shouted support for their former chairman.
KPK prosecutors had sought a 15-year sentence on grounds of corruption and money laundering. "We respect the judges' decision. We need time to examine the verdict before deciding our next move," KPK spokesman Johan Budi told BeritaSatu TV.
The judges also rejected a demand by the KPK that Anas should have his political rights revoked, meaning he can get involved in politics again. Two of the five judges had a dissenting opinion, rejecting the money laundering charges against Anas, which would allow the KPK to seize the money he had gained from corruption.
Yesril Anwar, a criminal expert from Padjadjaran University, criticized the two judges' disagreement with the money laundering charges.
"We must take [the two charges] into context. There could not be any money laundered if there is no act of corruption. [The judges] must see [the two charges] as one package," he said. "Both have legal correlations, both are extraordinary crimes. It is incorrect what the dissenting judges said."
Yesril suggested that the KPK should also level charges of tax fraud to bring Anas down, arguing that he has not paid any taxes on the illicit wealth he had amassed.
Athletes pay the price
The training center, colloquially known as Hambalang for the town in which it was supposed to be built, now lies mothballed on the West Java hillside – a white elephant of corruption in a country that punches well below its weight in sports.
At the most recent Asian Games, which were held in Guanghzou in 2010, Indonesia achieved just four gold medals – three of which were in the dragon boat event.
The world's fourth-largest country was nowhere near the top-ten in the medals table, while regional peers Malaysia and Thailand brought home double Indonesia's medal haul.
Corruption allowed the budget for Hambalang to balloon to approximately Rp 2.5 trillion, running up a loss to the public purse of Rp 470 billion in the process.
While Indonesian athletes have found their international potential frustrated by poor facilities and insufficient funding, Anas was taking delivery of snazzy cars and bags of cash for rigging tenders in a bid to bankroll his thirst for power, the court found.
Prosecutors said that Anas had used hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund his election campaign for the chairmanship of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party.
Anas spent Rp 20 billion between Nov. 16, 2010, and Mar. 13, 2013 on land and houses. His salary and allowances as a lawmaker between Oct. 1, 2009, and Aug. 21, 2010, amounted to around Rp 500 million. He had no other source of declared income.
A host of accusations
Anas was not the only politician to be brought down by corruption allegations in relation to the Hambalang center. Former Youth and Sport Affairs Minister Andi Alfian Mallarangeng was sentenced to four years in jail in July. Andi was convicted of having received Rp 4 billion and $550,000 from the firm Global Daya Manunggal through his brother, Andi Zulkarnaen Mallarangeng
Anas fought the charges against him by laying the blame at the door of everyone else. He claimed to have been set up by shadowy figures. He labeled the attempt to prosecute him a conspiracy. He painted himself as a sacrificial lamb sent to slaughter while "those in power cling to that power by any means."
He attempted to buy himself time and derail court proceedings by drip-feeding sensational allegations about some of the country's most senior politicians, which were dutifully picked up and splashed by the Indonesian media.
The most serious of these insinuations were that Yudhoyono's son Edhie Baskoro Yudhoyono had taken a $200,000 bribe as part of the whole affair. Anas also said Edhie "benefited" from the May 2010 party congress at which he was alleged to have used the money to buy votes in his bid for the party chair. Anas did not, however, accuse Edhie of having taken any bribes.
Instead, he questioned prosecutors' hesitancy to call Edhie to the stand, saying that as the head of the congress's steering committee, Edhie was "the one person who best understood how the election worked." This allegation has not been substantiated and no charges have been brought against Edhie.
The president's son was not the only sideshow in what has been an at times farcical trial. The court heard that Anas' foreign jaunts to Hong Kong and elsewhere were paid for by Dutasari Citralaras, where his wife used to serve on the board.
Lawmaker Nova Riyanti Yusuf filed a police report for defamation against graft convict Muhammad Nazaruddin, who claimed to the court that she was Anas's second wife.
Gallows humor
Another tactic that Anas employed to try and save his neck was to volunteer to be "hanged from Monas [the National Monument in Jakarta]" if he were found to have stolen as much as Rp 1 from the Hambalang project.
KPK deputy chairman Bambang Widjojanto, who was never swayed by the protestation of innocence, reminded Anas of his promise before the verdict was announced on Wednesday.
"The KPK only wants to remind Anas of a statement about his willingness to be hanged at Monas if he stole just Rp 1, which seems to be forgotten now," Bambang said.
He said Anas came up with a political statement first, by mentioning "hanging at Monas," but said he could understand the strategy, as Anas was, after all, a politician. "KPK prosecutors are not politicians, so we won't play with political statements," Bambang said.
While Anas described the sentence as excessive, one of his former Democratic Party colleagues called it lenient. "He asked to be hanged at Monas, so [the verdict] is light," said Ruhut Sitompul, an outspoken senior Democratic Party member.
Anas made no mention of the hanging when giving his closing remarks to the court on Wednesday. "I'll need a week to think before deciding whether to file an appeal," he said.
[Additional reporting by Novianti Setuningsih.]
Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/anas-gets-away-8-years-sustained-corruption/