The former Indonesian minister jailed for 12 years for the COVID-19 graft scandal

JAKARTA, Aug 23 (Reuters) – Former Indonesian Social Affairs Minister Juliari Batubara has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for a multimillion-dollar COVID-19 scandal, the Jakarta Corruption Court ruled on Monday.

A judge said the former politician was found “convincingly guilty of corruption” after receiving 32.4 billion rupees ($ 2.25 million) in compensation in connection with the hiring of goods for social assistance packages COVID-19.

The politician, who the court found to have been involved in the bidding process, was also fined Rs 500 crore and sentenced to pay Rs 14.5 billion in embezzled funds used for personal expenses.

In the streaming ruling, the judges said Juliari would also be banned from public office for four years after serving his prison sentence.

Juliari had refused to do wrong. His lawyer, Maqdir Ismail, on Monday described the sentence, which was a year longer than the investigators had demanded, as too harsh and said they were considering whether to appeal.

The Anti-Graft Commission of Indonesia (KPK) named Juliari as a suspect in the case last December along with four other people.

At the time, anti-corruption investigators discovered more than a million dollars of cash wrapped in suitcases and other containers, a day before the former minister was handed over.

President Joko Widodo was elected in 2014 with the promise of fighting the graft and some prominent politicians have been jailed for corruption during his administration, but there are concerns that the influence of the antigreft agency has weakened.

According to the global watchdog Transparency International (TI), a worsening of the graft caused Indonesia to drop three points in its corruption perception index last year to stand at 102 out of 180 countries.

($ 1 = 14,410,000 rupees)

Written by Kate Lamb; Edited by James Pearson and Ed Davies

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