Non-active Supreme Court justice Gazalba Saleh walking into the courtroom ahead of the verdict hearing at the Jakarta Corruption Court on Oct 15. - Antara
JAKARTA: The Jakarta Corruption Court sentenced non-active Supreme Court justice Gazalba Saleh to 10 years in prison after the judges found him guilty of accepting unlawful gifts pertaining to a case handled by the country’s highest court, as well as laundering illicit money.
During a hearing on Tuesday (Oct 15), the panel of judges, presided by Judge Fahzal Hendri, read out the additional punishment against Gazalba: a fine of Rp 500 million (US$32,177) or an additional four months of imprisonment.
The sentence was lighter than the prosecutor’s demand of 15 years behind bars and a Rp 1 billion fine.
The bench also did not grant the prosecutor’s request that Gazalba pay Rp 1.5 billion and US$18,000 in restitution, arguing that the money he received did not incur state losses.
Judges concluded that Gazalba accepted bribes from businessman Jawahirul Fuad in exchange for acquitting the latter from a legal case implicating his company in the unauthorised disposal of hazardous waste.
Gazalba’s friend, lawyer Ahmad Riyad, received Rp 650 million from the businessman and handed over Rp 500 million to the justice.
“[Gazalba] received his portion amounting to Rp 500 million in Singaporean dollars, while the remaining Rp 150 million was accepted by Ahmad Riyad.
Therefore, this shows that the defendant had accepted unlawful gifts in the case,” Judge Fahzal Hendri said at Tuesday’s hearing, as quoted by kompas.id.
During his tenure at the Supreme Court, Gazalba also handled a case review submitted by former Samarinda Regional Legislative Council (DPRD) member Jaffar Abdul Gafar of the Golkar Party, who stood trial in an illegal levy case in East Kalimantan’s capital city.
When Jaffar filed a case review in 2020, his lawyer Neshawaty Arsyad, who knew Gazalba, was said to have paid a sum of Rp 37 billion pertaining to the petition’s hearing at the Supreme Court.
“The judges believe that some of the money was given to the defendant Gazalba Saleh,” said Fahzal, reading the verdict.
The illicit money accepted from Jawahirul and Neshawaty was laundered through the purchase of gold bars as well as luxurious houses and cars.
According to the judges, Gazalba used other people’s identity while making such purchases. The bench also found Gazalba had exchanged Singapore and United States dollars into rupiah totalling nearly Rp 4 billion.
After the judges read out their verdict, Gazalba told the court that he and his lawyers would appeal.
Prosecutors from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) said that they would take time to consider whether to appeal.
The judges reached the verdict after having previously acquitted Gazalba in May in their interlocutory verdict on the grounds that the KPK prosecutors did not have the authority to prosecute the defendants as a result of failing to obtain permission from the Attorney General’s Office (AGO).
But the Jakarta High Court accepted the antigraft body’s appeal, annulling the acquittal and ordering the lower court to resume the trial.
May's acquittal was the third time for Gazalba, after the Bandung Corruption Court in West Java cleared him of all charges last year citing insufficient evidence.
At that time, the KPK accused Gazalba of accepting bribes from a businessman in exchange for convicting an executive of a savings and loans cooperative over falsifying documents.
The antigraft body appealed the acquittal at the Supreme Court, which rejected the appeal, ordering Gazalba’s release from detention.
The non-active justice walked free for four months until the KPK arrested him again in November 2023, after naming him a suspect in the bribery and money laundering case. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
