TEMPO.CO, Jakarta- Denials became a weapon Fathanah oftenly used during his trial at the Corruption Criminal Court (Tipikor), last Friday. As a witness of two PT Indoguna Utama executives, Juard Effendy and Arya Effendy, the import beef graft suspect denied any allegations.
He denied to have given Lutfi Hasan Ishaaq Rp1 billion he received from PT Indoguna, saying he never had any intention to give the money to Lutfi. Fathanah said the money was used to pay his debt to a car dealer and an interior designer he was going to meet at the Le Meridien Hotel, where he was then arrested on January 29. The Anti-Graft Commission (KPK) believed the money he received was to lobby the import permit for PT Indoguna. A few days after his arrest, KPK arrested Lutfi Hasan Ishaaq.
The prosecutor on trial played the tape of a conversation between Fathanah and Lutfi. "Can we meet tonight? There is something very important I want to tell you," Fathanah said. But again, Fathanah denied that he was going to give the money to Lutfi. This forty-seven year-old, also Lutfi’s classmate at a university in Saudi Arabia, claimed that he only intended to tease Lutfi in the middle of his tight schedule.
Fathanah changed his confessions to KPK investigators so many times. On January 30, based on the copy of the case document TEMPO found, he said the Rp1 billion was to hold seminars on import beef quota in Indonesia. He also denied to have ever talked to Lutfi about the import quota. However, two weeks later, Fathanah admitted to have spoken to PT Indoguna about the import quota and to have ever discussed about the import permit with Lutfi.
Not only changing his confessions, Fathanah was also caught red-handed stealing a document at KPK building a day after his arrest. He stole the document about his interviews with other KPK investigator, Novel Baswedan, when another KPK investigator stepped out of the office. Bad luck, his action was caught on cctv camera, "Did you ask for a permission (to take the document)?" the investigator asked. "I did not ask for a permission from anyone," Fathanah answered after watching his video.
NUR ALFIYAH | LINDA HAIRANI | PRAM
