Chairman Of The Cilegon Chamber Of Commerce And Extortion Of The CAA Factory Project Sued 5 Years In Prison

Chairman of the Cilegon City Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) Muhamad Salim was sentenced to five years in prison by the Public Prosecutor (JPU) of the Cilegon Kejari in the case of alleged thuggery and extortion of Rp5 trillion in the Chandra Asri Alkali (CAA) factory construction project in Cilegon City.

In a trial at the Serang Corruption Court, Serang City, Public Prosecutor Febby Febrian Arip Mulyana found Salim guilty of violating Article 160 of the Criminal Code concerning incitement and Article 368 of the Criminal Code regarding the extortion of junto Article 55 paragraph 1 1 of the Criminal Code.

"Sentenced the defendant Muhamad Salim to five years in prison, reduced his prison term, with an order to remain detained," said Febby while reading the charges before the panel of judges, reported by ANTARA, Monday, October 6.

Apart from Salim, four other defendants were also sentenced to criminal charges. They are Deputy Chairman of the Cilegon Kadin Isbatullloh Alibasa, Deputy Chairman of the Cilegon Chamber of Commerce and Industry Ismatullah, Chairman of HNSI Cilegon Rufaji Jahuri, and Chairman of the BMPP NGO Zul Basit,

"The other four defendants were sentenced to three years in prison each because they were proven to have violated Article 368 of the Criminal Code junto Article 55 paragraph 1 1 of the Criminal Code," said Febby.

The prosecutor assessed that the actions of the defendants caused public unrest and disrupted the investment climate in Cilegon City. This is a consideration for weighting in the demands.

Meanwhile, mitigating factors are the confessions of the defendants, the polite attitude at trial, and have never served a criminal sentence before.

The trial will continue next week with the defendant's defense agenda.

This case began with a forced request for work to the implementing party for the CAA-1 project worth IDR 17 trillion by the suspects.

They went to China's Chengda Engineering Co. Ltd. office, the project's main contractor, and forced them to be given a work package without going through the auction process.

Several statements were recorded in a video that went viral on social media. One of them, the suspect Zul Basit said, "Let's stop the activities on this project. Let's stop, how come we are afraid of Cilegon".

Meanwhile, witness H. Muhammad Salim emphasized, "Since the meeting several times until now, what Chengda promised has never been realized."

The pressure given by the suspects prompted China Chengda to approve the provision of several work packages. However, work has not been realized because the suspect was immediately arrested by the police following the viral video of the intimidation.

The evidence submitted in this case is very diverse, ranging from the video recording of intimidation, correspondence between Kadin Cilegon and project implementers, to conversational communication via the WhatsApp application.

This case is in the public spotlight because it involves the names of the leaders of local organizations and raises allegations of coercion practices in the implementation of major projects in the industrial area of Cilegon City.