Jakarta – Indonesian courts have been very lenient toward corruption defendants last year, sentencing them to an average of just 26 months in prison, the country's most prominent antigraft watchdog said.

The Indonesia Corruption Watch released a study on Sunday (07/02) examining all 564 corruption cases heard by anti-corruption courts across the country last year. The report found that 68 defendants have been acquitted by the courts with a whopping 401 defendants only receiving light sentences of less than four years.

Last year, only three defendants were sentenced to more than 10 years, while the remaining were handed down sentences of between four and 10 years.

The group also found that 309 of the defendants convicted last year were only ordered to pay the minimum fine of Rp 50 million ($3,650). Conversely just 33 defendants were ordered to pay more than Rp 200 million. The maximum fine for corruption offenses is Rp 1 billion.

It is a worrying trend, ICW said in a statement, considering that the defendants are still up for sentence cuts and parole. It added that the light sentences would do little to deter others from committing acts of corruption.

The courts only acquitted 16 defendants in 2013 and handed down prison sentences with an average of 35 months' imprisonment. The figure rose to 28 acquitted in 2014, while the average prison term handed down dwindled to 32 months.

The ICW also noted that the Supreme Court has not set a standard of how much prison time a defendant should receive for cases where the state has suffered material losses, leading to huge disparities in the length of prison terms handed down.

The Palembang District Court last year sentenced a man accused of embezzling Rp 10 million to one year in prison, while the Bengkulu District Court handed a prison term of the same length for a case where the state had suffered losses of Rp 6.3 billion, the report pointed out.

"Disparities of sentences will hurt people's sense of justice. [Disparities] occur because judges enjoy great independence to make a ruling as they please without accountability for their judgments," the ICW said.

"The judiciary must enact reforms to strengthen its supervisory function to establish a more accountable court system to support the drive to eradicate corruption. The government should also enact stronger regulations in the fight against corruption like a law on asset seizures to address issues found in retrieving stolen assets."

Source: http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/courts-let-graft-convicts-off-hook-easy-watchdog-says/