Former parliamentary speaker gets 15 years in prison for corruption
Setya Novanto was found guilty of rigging a government contract to buy electronic identity cards. He is the fourth defendant found guilty in the case, following the conviction of Irman and Sugiharto, two former senior officials with the Interior Ministry, and businessman Andi Agustinus (aka Andi Narogong).
Jakarta (AsiaNews) – The Jakarta Corruption Court judges sentenced Setya Novanto, Golkar party chairman and former speaker of the People's Representative Council, to 15 years in prison on Tuesday.
The court found the important businessman guilty of rigging a tender of 5.9 trillion rupees (US$ 424 million) in connection with the purchase of electronic identity card (e-ID), amounting to 2.3 trillion rupees (US$ 170 million) in losses for the state.
The court also ordered him to pay 500 million rupees in fines and restitution amounting to the US$ 7.3 million he obtained as intermediary.
The road to justice was long and arduous since the politician came into the crosshairs of the Corruption Eradication Commission (Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi, KPK) in July 2017.
On two occasions, Setya Novanto was able to skip a summons by the KPK for health reasons. Eventually, the authorities issued a warrant for his arrest on 15 November.
The next day, before the warrant could be carried out, the former speaker was involved in a car accident that critics deemed very suspicious. Still, despite being in hospital, he was formally arrested on 19 November.
His alleged poor health conditioned the first interrogations, following which his defence lawyer and the treating physician were accused of obstructing justice.
Forced to resign as speaker of the People's Representative Council on 15 January 2018, Setya Novanto was replaced by Bambang Soesatyo.
As he read out the court’s decision, Chief Judge Yanto recommended that the now convicted felon be barred from elected office in the future since he broke parliament’s code of ethics in favour of personal gain.
Setya Novanto is the fourth person found guilty in this case. The others are Irman and Sugiharto, two former senior officials with the Interior Ministry, also sentenced to 15 years in prison, as well as businessman Andi Agustinus (aka Andi Narogong).
The Golkar party dominated Indonesian politics from 1971 to 1999. Afterwards it has pursued shifting alliances with other parties in power.
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