Nature Alert: Two Corruption Convicts Start Jail Terms At Cipinang

Tuesday, 18 August 2009

Two Corruption Convicts Start Jail Terms At Cipinang

August 18, 2009

Nivell Rayda

The Corruption Eradication Commission moved two of its graft detainees to their new “home” at the Cipinang penitentiary in East Jakarta on Tuesday, after the two had exhausted all of their legal options.

Ferry Wibisono, director of graft prosecution at the commission, which is known as the KPK, said that Tengku Azmun Jafaar, the former head of Pelalawan district in Riau province, and Abdillah, the former mayor of Medan in North Sumatra, were due to serve their jail terms at Cipinang.

On Aug. 3, the Supreme Court rejected Tengku’s appeal for acquittal and sentenced him to 11 years in prison. The court ruled that Tengku had issued logging licenses to 15 unqualified companies, including six fictitious businesses that he created from 2001 to 2002.

Tengku then sold the fake companies, along with their logging licenses, to two logging giants: PT Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper and PT Indah Kiat, which at the time had not secured logging permits in the district.

At 2 p.m. on Tuesday, KPK officers arrived at the National Police detainment facility, where Tengku was held while his case was being heard in court.

Tengku was also sentenced to pay Rp 12.3 billion ($1.2 million) in state losses and Rp 500 million in fines, Ferry said.

“According to the [Supreme Court’s] ruling, Tengku has 30 days to pay the compensation,” Ferry said. “If he fails, then we will be forced to auction off his assets.”

On Tuesday, KPK officers also visited the Jakarta Police headquarters where Abdillah was detained. On July 15, the Supreme Court sentenced the former mayor to four years in prison and Rp 250 million in fines, upholding similar rulings from the Anti-Corruption Court and the Jakarta High Court.

The court found Abdillah guilty of embezzling more than Rp 12 billion from the city coffers from 2005 to 2006. “The state losses have been reimbursed,” said Abdillah’s lawyer, Ahmad Yani, at KPK headquarters.

Before serving his term, the KPK on Tuesday questioned Abdillah about another graft case linked to the illegal procurement of fire engines in several cities and provinces, including Medan, from 2004 to 2005.

Abdillah will be up for parole in November

http://thejakartaglobe.com/home/two-corruption-convicts-start-jail-terms-at-cipinang/324650

Hall of Shame for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Palm Oil Industry.

Nothing can prepare one for the sight of the systematic extermination of orangutans by the government of Indonesia.

Look at the photos and news articles on these pages in the context of a statement the President made to the media on 10th December 2007.

“In the last 35 years about 50,000 orangutans are estimated to have been lost as their habitats shrank. If this continues, this majestic creature will likely face extinction by 2050,” President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at the launch of an orangutan conservation plan at the climate talks in Bali.

“The fate of the orangutan is a subject that goes to the heart of sustainable forests … To save the orangutan we have to save the forest.”

Statements like these are most welcome, but unless backed up by action, such words fall on deaf ears within the Ministry of Forestry....who are busy granting licences to cut down the very forests the President says they should protect!

When you think you are to busy to help, please could you reflect for a moment on .........

The following extract refers to environmental problems in general. I just hope you find it as thought provoking and relevant to orangutans as I have.

"This is such a shocking and unpalatable fact that most people deny it, or they just don't want to think about it. They believe as individuals, they can do little about it, so push it to the back of their minds. But I can't do that.

When something has to be done, we need to do it. It doesn't matter how big the challenge is or how hard the solution; if I know something is wrong, and I am in a position to help, I will do my best to make it right." Duncan Bannatyne, successful British businessman.