FORMER ENVOY MAY FACE 20 YEARS IN PRISON
(RACHMAD YULIADI NASIR, rbacakoran at yahoo dot com)
INDEPENDENT-Prosecutors told former Indonesian ambassador to Malaysia Rusdihardjo he deserved 20 years behind bars for manipulating immigration fees at his first trial session at the anti corruption court in South Jakarta on Wednesday.
The prosecution team accused Rusdihardjo, along with the embassy's former immigration section chief Arihken Tarigan, of corruption during their time as officials in Kuala Lumpur between January 2004 and October 2005.
The defendants allegedly manipulated discrepancies in immigration fee regulations to siphon off Rp 15 billion (US$1.63 million) in government money.
Prosecutor Suwarji said Rusdihardjo had received a report from Arihken regarding two ambassadorial decrees on immigration fees, with one fee significantly higher than the other.
He added that Rusdihardjo submitted income statements to the state based on the lower immigration fee while charging the higher fee to applicants and embezzling the difference.
The former National Police chief received between 30,000 ringgit (approximately US$9,290) and 40,000 ringgit every month, which meant he stole up to Rp 2.2 billion.
Edy Hartoyo, another prosecutor, cited the case of one migrant who was charged 140 ringgit but was only reported as being charged 120 ringgit.
The corruption charges carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in jail and up to Rp 1 billion in fines.
Rusdihardjo's legal advisor Warsito told reporters his client was completely innocent because the immigration section handled such matters.
The trial will resume next Wednesday to hear a statement from the defense team.
