Moch. Fiqih Prawira Adjie, Jakarta – Jakarta Corruption Court judges sentenced former Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmaker I Nyoman Dhamantra to seven years of imprisonment on Wednesday for bribery relating to garlic import permits.
According to Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) spokesperson Ali Fikri, Nyoman was found guilty of violating Article 12 of the 2001 Corruption Law prohibiting civil servants or state organizers from receiving bribes.
He was also ordered to pay a fine of Rp 500 million (US$32,878), which would be substituted for another three months of imprisonment should he fail to pay.
Additionally, his right to run for public office will be suspended for four years.
The sentence was lower than the KPK prosecutors' demand for 10 years of imprisonment and a Rp 1 million fine, based on Nyoman having received Rp 2 billion in bribes from businesspeople Chandry Suanda, Doddy Wahyudi and Zulfikar, with Rp 1.5 million more being promised.
The judges also sentenced Mirawati and Elviyanto, two of Nyoman's close aides that also received some of the bribery money, to five years' imprisonment and a Rp 500 million fine each.
Ali said legal representatives of Nyoman, Mirawati and Elviyanto would file an appeal against the judges' decision. In comparison, the KPK prosecutors are still considering filing an appeal
The KPK stated that Nyoman, through Mirawati, had initially asked for a total of Rp 3.6 billion in fees from the businesspeople in exchange for issuing an import quota permit of 20,000 tons of garlic to several companies, including Chandry's PT Chaya Sakti Agro.
During raids conducted in August 2019, the KPK seized S$50,000 (US$36,180) from Mirawati and documents concerning the alleged transfer of Rp 2.1 billion from Doddy to an account in Indocev Money Changer.
Nyoman previously served in House of Representatives Commission VI on trade, industry, investment, cooperatives, small and medium enterprises and state-owned companies from 2014 to 2019.
Chandry, Doddy and Zulfikar are still on trial in the bribery case.