Jakarta – The Supreme Court has decreased the punishment for former Constitutional Court justice Patrialis Akbar to seven years in prison following a case review petition filed by the graft convict to the court.
The court's verdict upheld the Jakarta Corruption Court's ruling that found Patrialis guilty of bribery, but it reduced his prison sentence from the previous eight years' imprisonment handed down by the primary court.
A panel of judges who handled the case review argued that they found a mitigating circumstance that had been revealed during the trial and was relevant in considering whether to hand down a lighter punishment, Supreme Court spokesperson Andi Samsan Nganro said.
"[Patrialis] only received US$10,000 or half of the amount of US$20,000 given [as bribes] from businessman Basuki Hariman through [middleman] Kamaluddin," Andi said on Friday as quoted by kompas.com.
Andi went on to say that Patrialis did not receive the rest of the bribe money personally. Some Rp 4 million was used by Patrialis to play golf with Kamaluddin, who later spent the remaining money for his personal interests.
Patrialis was found guilty in 2017 of accepting bribes from Hariman to favor the latter in a judicial review petition against the Animal Husbandry Law. He was immediately stripped from his position at the Constitutional Court after the case broke out. (afr)