Former agriculture minister and graft defendant Syahrul Yasin Limpo heads to the defendant's chair during a sentence demand hearing against him at the Jakarta Corruption Court in Jakarta on June 28, 2024. - Photo: Antara
JAKARTA: Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) prosecutors have asked a court to sentence Syahrul Yasin Limpo, former agriculture minister and NasDem Party politician, to 12 years in prison for his role in a bribery case in the Agriculture Ministry.
The panel of judges should also punish the former minister with a Rp 500 million (US$30,580) fine.
"We also demanded that Syahrul be sentenced to pay Rp 44.3 billion and $30,000 in restitution within a month of the verdict being legally binding, or serve an additional four years in prison," KPK prosecutor Meyer Simanjuntak read the sentence demand during a hearing at the Jakarta Corruption Court in Jakarta on Friday (June 28).
The antigraft body charged Syahrul with soliciting bribes and accepting gratuities from his colleagues at the Agriculture Ministry.
According to the KPK, he accepted a total of Rp 44.5 billion between January 2020 and October 2023.
In the indictment letter, prosecutors accused Syahrul of ordering his two subordinates, the ministry’s former secretary-general Kasdi Subagyono and former agricultural machinery equipment director Muhammad Hatta, to collect money from various divisions within the Agriculture Ministry.
The two officials were also arrested and indicted by the KPK in separate cases.
Each of the ministry’s secretariats, directorates general and agencies was required to give up 20 percent of their budgets to Syahrul, despite the lack of an allocation for the minister in the official budget.
The money, according to the KPK, should be paid over as though the officials had a debt to Syahrul.
The then-minister threatened the officials with demotion, transfer or dismissal from their positions should they reject Syahrul’s demands for the illicit money.
The politician then used the money for various personal purposes, including buying luxurious cars, gifts and apartments.
He also allegedly used the illicit money to charter private jets, disburse humanitarian aid for disaster victims and go on umrah (minor haj) and other trips abroad.
Prosecutors also accused the defendant of disbursing a total of around Rp 40.1 million of the bribes to NasDem.
The money was transferred at least three times from 2020 to 2022. NasDem initially denied the allegations.
But after listening to several witnesses throughout the trial, prosecutors concluded that the party received around Rp 965 million.
During Friday’s hearing, prosecutors told the court that the KPK received Rp 820 million from NasDem treasurer Ahmad Sahroni in December of last year, as well as Rp 40 million from the party’s faction at the House of Representatives in March.
Aside from the bribery case, the KPK is also investigating Syahrul for an allegation of money laundering.
During one of the hearings, the former minister asked the bench to expedite all legal proceedings against him, including the money laundering investigation, citing his health and age.
Presiding judge Rianto Adam Pontoh told the 69-year-old politician that the court could not compel the prosecutors to accelerate proceedings in the trial.
He added that the investigation lay within the KPK's remit, rather than with the court.
Also on Friday, prosecutors sought a six-year prison sentence for Kasdi and Hatta, as well as a Rp 250 million fine for conspiring with Syahrul to solicit bribes from various officials in the Agriculture Ministry. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
