Village Fund Corruption Defendant In Seram Eastern Maluku Sentenced To 4 Years In Prison

AMBON - Acting Head of the Rukun Jaya Administrative Village, West Bula District, East Seram Regency, Maluku, Muhammad Rasmi Sulla was sentenced to 4 years in prison. This 2019 village fund corruption case cost the state Rp721.17 million.

"Declare that the defendant is legally and convincingly proven guilty of violating Article 2 paragraph (1) in conjunction with Article 18 of Law Number 31 of 1999 as amended by Law Number 20 of 2001 concerning the Eradication of Corruption Crimes," said the Chairman of the Panel of Judges of the Corruption Court, Jenny Tulak. reported by ANTARA, Wednesday, September 14.

In addition, the panel of judges also sentenced the defendant to pay a fine of IDR 200 million, a subsidiary of three months in prison, and replacement money of IDR 721.17 million, a subsidiary of two years in prison.

The thing that burdens the defendant is not supporting the government's program in eradicating corruption, collusion, and nepotism. Meanwhile, the mitigating factor is that the defendant is polite, has never been punished, and has responsibilities as the head of the family.

The decision of the Ambon Corruption Court judges was lighter than the demands of the Public Prosecutor of the East Seram District Attorney's Office, Rido Sampe, who demanded the defendant to be sentenced to five years and six months in prison.

In the trial, it was revealed that the Rukun Jaya Administrative Village/State in 2019 received an allocation of village funds of IDR 980 million to build a number of facilities, such as making wells and clean water tanks. However, the project was not completed because there was no pipeline to the residents' houses.

There were a number of other activities, such as the procurement of 10 units of heavenly power street lights, the installation of electrical installations in 10 units of residents' houses, and the procurement of meatball carts for the community empowerment program.

The defendant Muhammad Rasmi Sulla was a state civil servant at the East Seram Regency PUPR Service from October 2018 to April 2020.

"He used the 2019 ADD (village fund allocation) and DD (village fund) which were not supported by evidence of accountability, there was no realization of activities/procurement of goods, or there were goods that were realized, but the value did not match the realized price," said the public prosecutor.