Businessman Tommy Sumardi attends a hearing at the Jakarta Corruption Court on November 2. ANTARA/THE JAKARTA POST
Prosecutors have demanded that the Jakarta Corruption Court sentence businessman Tommy Sumardi to one year and six months in prison for assisting Djoko Tjandra with his Interpol red notice removal.
“[We demand that] defendant Tommy Sumardi be sentenced under Article 5 or Article 13 of the law on corruption eradication,” the prosecutors said on December 15, as quoted by tempo.co. Prosecutors also demanded that Tommy pay a fine of 100 million rupiah ($7,100).
Tommy allegedly acted as a middleman between Djoko and two former police generals to arrange for Djoko’s return to Indonesia when he was a fugitive implicated in the Bank Bali corruption case. Djoko previously admitted to paying 10 billion rupiah to Tommy for the task.
Djoko allegedly gave the former National Police international relations division head, Inspector General Napoleon Bonaparte, a bribe of $270,000 and S$200,000 (US$151,000) for the red notice removal.
Djoko is also accused of giving $150,000 to Brigadier General Prasetyo Utomo, the former head of the Civil Servant Investigators Supervisory and Coordination Bureau at the National Police’s Criminal Investigation Agency (Bareskrim), for issuing a letter that allowed Djoko to travel freely within the country.
The two police generals have admitted to taking bribes from Djoko. All three are currently standing trial.
Prosecutors said the money was given to the two generals in exchange for removing Djoko’s name from the wanted list by issuing a letter addressed to the Law and Ministry of Law and Human Rights’s Directorate General of Immigration.
Djoko was included on the Interpol red notice list after the Supreme Court sentenced him to two years in prison and ordered him to pay 546 billion rupiah in restitution for his role in the high-profile Bank Bali corruption case in June 2009.
He fled the country a day before his conviction and remained at large for more than a decade before being arrested in Malaysia and deported to Indonesia in July of this year.
While he was at large, Djoko said he had planned to file a case review, but as convicts were required to appear at the Supreme Court to register a plea, he could not.
Tommy’s lawyers told the court that they would make a defence statement at the next hearing, scheduled for December 17, tribunnews.com reported.
In addition to Tommy, prosecutor Pinangki Sirna Malasari is suspected of acting as an enabler for Djoko. She allegedly accepted money from Djoko in exchange for helping him ensure the Supreme Court would overturn his conviction.
THE JAKARTA POST/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
