Indonesian president's in-law jailed in bank graft case (Roundup)

Jun 17, 2009, 9:31 GMT

   Jakarta - An Indonesian court on Wednesday sentenced an in-law of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to four-and-a-half years in jail for his role in a multi-million-dollar embezzlement case that embroiled the central bank.

   Aulia Pohan, a former deputy governor of Bank Indonesia, and three former colleagues at the central bank were found guilty by the country's corruption court of misusing 100 billion rupiah (9.8 million dollars) from a foundation run by the bank in 2003.

   The case is seen as a test of Indonesia's determination to uphold the rule of law, as the country attempts to shake off its reputation as one of the world's most corruption-prone countries.

   Among the four, another former deputy governor, Maman Sumantri, was jailed for four-and-half years while the other ex-deputies, Bun Bunan Hutapea and Aslim Tadjuddin, received four years each.

   The jail term for Pohan and Sumantri was higher than the four years demanded by prosecutors.

   All four were ordered to pay a fine of 200 million rupiah.

   Pohan, whose daughter is married to Yudhoyono's eldest son, has been detained since November and was the last Bank Indonesia official to be arrested in the case.

   Since Yudhoyono won Indonesia's first direct presidential elections in 2004, officials including governors and former ministers have been jailed on graft charges.

   He is seeking re-election in a July 8 presidential election and has touted his efforts to root out corruption as one of his achievements.

   Emerson Yuntho, a campaigner for the Indonesia Corruption Watch activist group, welcomed the verdict as a sign of judicial independence in a country where the rich and the powerful were often untouched by the law in the past.

   'The verdict shows that no one is above the law and this is positive,' he said.

   But he said he had received information that Pohan had received privileged treatment in detention.

   The indictment said 31 billion rupiah of the embezzled money was used to bribe legislators who were conducting an inquiry into the alleged misuse of central bank bailout funds injected into troubled banks at the height of the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.

   The money was also intended to influence legislators discussing an amendment of the central bank law, prosecutors said.

   The remainder was spent on legal expenses for sitting and former Bank Indonesia officials facing prosecution over the alleged misuse of the bailout funds, the indictment said.

   The defendants have denied any wrongdoing, arguing that the money they used belonged to the foundation, not Bank Indonesia, and therefore their action caused no loss to the state.

   In October, former central bank governor Burhanuddin Abdullah was jailed for five years for his role in the embezzlement case.

   On Tuesday, another former Bank Indonesia governor, Sjahril Sabirin, was sent to prison to serve a two-year jail sentence for his role in a separate corruption scandal involving a private bank.

   The central bank has undergone a series of reforms after various corruption investigations in the past decade.

   Over the past year, investigations by the Corruption Eradication Commission have led to the arrest of several high-profile figures, including a top prosecutor, businessmen and legislators.