INDONESIA: An Indonesian court yesterday convicted parliamentary speaker Akbar Tandjung of corruption over a politically sensitive financial scandal and sentenced him to three years in jail.
The case had been widely viewed as another test of Jakarta's lagging legal reforms, and will turn the spotlight on President Megawati Sukarnoputri's coalition government.
Tandjung also heads the Golkar party, the second biggest in her government.
"We declare defendant Akbar Tandjung ... guilty of committing graft ... and hand over a sentence to the first defendant Akbar Tandjung of three years in jail," presiding judge Mr Amiruddin Zakaria told the Central Jakarta District Court.
Tandjung's chief lawyer immediately told the court he would appeal, and the influential politician remained defiant as he spoke to reporters later at his home.
"I never committed a crime," he said, adding that there had also been no calls for him to give up his political posts.
"There has been no request yet. If someone is convicted that doesn't mean that his political career is gone."
Tandjung is expected to remain free pending the appeal, and also keep his positions during the process.
Prosecutors had demanded Tandjung be jailed for four years over the alleged misuse of $4 million, far below the maximum 20-year penalty for corruption and abuse of power. Courts in Indonesia rarely impose tough sentences for corruption, even though the practice is endemic.
Tandjung has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and insists Golkar did not use $4 million from the state logistics agency, Bulog, which had been intended for Indonesia's impoverished masses in 1999 in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis.
The panel judges also convicted two others - Dadang Sukandar, head of a charity linked to the scandal, and Winfried Simatupang, appointed to disperse the funds. They were each sentenced to 18 months in jail.
The court did not say Tandjung kept the money, but said he had received cheques and given them to the other two defendants, who did not buy food for the poor as they should have. The case took a twist when Simatupang returned the money not long before the trial began in late March.
It was unclear why Tandjung got the longest sentence.