Jakarta – Last year's poor performance of law enforcement institutions, especially the district courts, in fighting corruption has once again been thrust into the spotlight after a recent report from Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW).
The latest report shows that 224, or 59.26 percent of 378 suspects tried for alleged involvement in corruption in 2009 were acquitted from all charges.
ICW disclosed that the 224 suspects released last year were implicated in 199 corruption cases, believed to have caused the state Rp 1.7 trillion (US$178.94 million) in losses.
"The number of suspects acquitted in district courts throughout Indonesia occurred at all levels, from the trial to appeal stages," ICW legal researcher Febridiansyah said as quoted by detik.com on Monday.
In addition, the report also highlighted the tendency of judges to hand out sentences of less than one year.
This fact, according to ICW, shows the Supreme Court under the leadership of Harifin Tumpa has failed to meet public expectations about the eradication of graft in the country.
He explained that 154 suspects were punished, but only lightly, thereby failing to suitably discourage future perpetrators.
"Of the 154 suspects, only one was sentenced to more than 10 years in jail," Febridiansyah said, adding that those sentenced to less than one year totaled 81, while 23 suspects were sentenced to between 1.1 and 2 years in jail.
"Twenty-six people were sentenced to between 2.1 and 5 years, while 6 others were sentenced to 5.1- to 10 years," he said.
The most deplorable fact, he said, was that 16 suspects were sentenced to probation.
As an example, Febridiansyah cited the lightest sentence of 3-months imprisonment given by the Sumbawa District Court in West Nusa Tenggara to Umar and Ali Ibnu Husein, two legislative councilors from Sumbawa, for graft in relation to the 2003 regional budget.
"Nursetyadi Pamungkas [president of PT Sentra Artha Utama] received the heaviest sentence of 12 years in jail from the Situbondo District Court in East Java for involvement in misappropriation of the regency budget worth Rp 45.73 billion," he said.
The most striking aspect of the 378 suspects, he said, was the high number of government officials involved in graft. More than 116 were former members of local legislative councils, 52 were state officials, 63 were heads of government institutions and 69 were private employees.
"The 224 suspects acquitted from all charges by district court raised the number of those acquitted for alleged corruption to 883 as of last year," he said.
According to ICW's report, the Makassar District Court in South Sulawesi is a "heaven" for corruption, where 38 suspects were released, followed by Tahuna Talau District Court in North Sulawesi where 20 suspects were acquitted from their charges. The Supreme Court released 18 corruption suspects last year.