KPK Demands 8 Years in Prison for Former Garuda Boss

Prosecutors from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) sought an 8-year prison sentence for Emirsyah Satar during a hearing on Thursday at the Jakarta Corruption Court, in a graft trial regarding Emirsyah's alleged involvement in a fabricated aircraft procurement during his tenure as the president director of the Garuda Indonesia airline.

They also demanded a fine of Rp 1 billion and $86 million in restitution for state losses, as reported by Antara.

The KPK accused Emirsyah of violating Article 2 (1) of the 2001 Corruption Law, which prohibits enriching oneself or a corporation by inflicting losses on the state.

Prosecutors stated that Emirsyah handed over the state-owned enterprise's confidential aircraft procurement plan to Soetikno Soedarjo, who then passed the plan to the Canadian aircraft manufacturer Bombardier.

The KPK also indicted Emirsyah on charges related to altering the aircraft capacity in the procurement plan from 70 to 90 seats without informing other Garuda board members.

Emirsyah allegedly conspired with Soetikno, the former president director of the diversified retail company PT Mugi Rekso Abadi who also served as a commercial advisor for Bombardier and the French aircraft manufacturer ATR, so that both companies were given the opportunity to win the procurement tender for new aircraft for the Garuda fleet.

The state-owned airline eventually purchased the Bombardier CRJ-1000 and ATR 72-600 aircraft, even though these planes did not meet Garuda's business needs as a full-service airline, which reportedly caused $609 million in state losses.

In a separate trial on Thursday, prosecutors sought a sentence for co-conspirator Soetikno consisting of 6 years in prison, a fine of Rp 1 billion, and restitution of $1.7 million and 4.3 million euros for his role in the dishonest procurement deal.

The corruption trial regarding this procurement deal is the second one for Emirsyah.

Emirsyah was previously convicted of corruption for receiving multiple bribes totaling Rp 49.3 billion during his tenure as Garuda's president director from 2005 to 2014.

Emirsyah's prosecution came three years after the anti-corruption agency issued a Warrant of Investigation (Sprindik) in January 2017.

Three years later in May 2020, the corruption court found Emirsyah guilty of bribery and money laundering and sentenced him to 8 years in prison, which was lighter than the 12-year prison sentence requested by KPK prosecutors.

Soetikno was also tried and found guilty in connection with the same corruption case, and the court sentenced him to 6 years in prison for bribery and assisting Emirsyah in money laundering. (Kuk)

Source : https://www.thejakartapost.com/indonesia/2024/06/28/kpk-seeks-eight-years-for-ex-garuda-boss-in-procurement-graft-case