KPK Demands 5 Years in Jail for Sofyan Basir

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Corruption Eradication Commission’s (KPK) public prosecutor demanded five years' imprisonment for the former president director of state electricity firm PT PLN, Sofyan Basir. He was also ordered to pay a fine of Rp200 million or a subsidy of 3 months in jail.

“[We are] prosecuting, declaring that the defendant is proven guilty of continuously committing criminal acts of corruption," said prosecutor Ronald Ferdinand Worotika as he read the indictment at the Jakarta Corruption Court today, Monday, October 7.

Sofyan is tried as a defendant in the bribery case of the PLTU Riau-1 construction project. The prosecutor accused Sofyan of deliberately providing assistance, opportunities, facilities or information during and while he was about to commit corruption and bribery to former deputy of the House's Energy Commission Eni Maulani Saragih and former Social Affairs Minister Idrus Marham. He committed the acts in order to receive a bribe from Johanes Budisutrisno Kotjo.

The bribery case was first revealed when the anti-graft body conducted a raid or OTT against Eni and Kotjo on July 13, 2018. At that time, the KPK suspected Eni of receiving Rp4.75 billion in bribe money from Kotjo to get the Riau-1 PLTU project. Eni's main role was to introduce Kotjo to Sofyan.

During the trials, the former Golkar politician was proven to have facilitated at least nine meetings between Kotjo and Sofyan. The KPK suspected that Sofyan appointed Kotjo’s company to work on the project in the meeting. Sofyan also ordered one of PLN directors to communicate with both Kotjo and Eni.

Following the KPK prosecutor’s indictment, Sofyan Basir stated he would file an appeal. A follow-up trial with the agenda of defense plea reading is slated to take place in two weeks on October 21, 2019.

ANDITA RAHMA