Banjarnegara Regent Budhi Sarwono Charged With Accepting Bribes Of IDR 18.7 Billion

SEMARANG - Banjarnegara Inactive Regent Budhi Sarwono was charged by the public prosecutor with accepting bribes of Rp. 18.7 billion and gratification of Rp. 7.4 billion, allegedly as fees for various infrastructure project works in the local district.

At a hybrid trial at the Semarang City Corruption Court, a member of the public prosecutor's team from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Heradian Salipi said that the defendant Budhi Sarwono and the defendant Kedy Afandi from the private sector participated, and arranged for the three companies to get project work that was financed by the local budget.

"PT Sutikno Tirta Kencana, PT Buton Tirto Baskoro, and PT Bumi Redjo, where the first defendant as a beneficiary of the company got a job totaling Rp93.9 billion and received financial benefits from a work package totaling Rp18.7 billion," said The prosecutor was quoted by Antara, Tuesday, January 25.

In addition, defendant Budhi Sarwono and defendant Kedy Afandi also received gratuities in the form of money worth IDR 7.4 billion from several parties.

For their actions, the Public Prosecutor charged the two defendants with Article 12 or Article 11 of Law Number 31 of 1999 which was amended by Law Number 20 of 2001 concerning the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption.

Based on the prosecutor's indictment, the defendant Budhi Sarwono, who attended the online trial, rejected all charges.

"I have never done what the public prosecutor has charged me with," said Budhi Sarwono, who was at the KPK building, Jakarta.

The panel of judges chaired by Chief Justice Rohmad and member judges of NGR Rajendra and Lujianto postponed the trial and will continue the trial on Friday, February 4 with the agenda of hearing the witnesses proposed by the Public Prosecutor.

In particular, Chief Justice Rohmad also asked the Public Prosecutor to present the two defendants at a follow-up trial at the Semarang Corruption Court.

In response to the request, Public Prosecutor Heradian Salipi believes that the defendant Budhi Sarwono is better off staying at the KPK Detention Center in Lot C1.

"The consideration is to facilitate the investigation of the ML (money laundering) case," he said.