4 Defendants Of The Sriwijaya Mosque Corruption That Made The State Overdrawn By Rp. 116 Billion Can Be Imprisoned For 20 Years

Photo via Antara

JAKARTA - Four defendants in the alleged corruption case in the third volume of the grant for the construction of the Sriwijaya Palembang Grand Mosque are threatened with a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.

The threat of punishment refers to the article imposed by the Public Prosecutor (JPU) of the South Sumatra High Court against the defendants in their first trial at the Palembang District Court, Monday, January 24, quoted from Antara.

The Public Prosecutor of the South Sumatra High Court, M Naimullah, before the panel of judges chaired by Judge Yoserizal, explained that the defendants had committed criminal acts of corruption together, enriching themselves or others with respect to their authority, so that the state suffered a loss of Rp. 116 billion.

The Public Prosecutor imposed the defendant Article 2 paragraph 1 or a subsidiary Article 3 of Law Number 20 of 2001 as an amendment to Law Number 31 of 1999 in conjunction with Article 55 Paragraph (1) of the Criminal Code in conjunction with Article 64 paragraph (1) of the Criminal Code regarding corruption .

Where as stipulated in the article, the defendant is threatened with a maximum prison sentence of 20 years in prison with a fine of Rp. 1 billion and a minimum of four years in prison with a fine of at least Rp. 200 million.

Those who were accused were Akhmad Najib (former Assistant I for Government and People's Welfare of the South Sumatra Provincial Government) Laonma PL Tobing (former Head of South Sumatra BPKAD) Agustinus Antoni (former Head of Budget Section of South Sumatra BPKAD) and Loka Sangganegara (development contractor).

They attended the trial online from the Palembang Class 1A detention house.

Meanwhile, after hearing the indictment, the defendants, namely Akhmad Najib, Laonma PL Tobing, and Agustinus Antoni, accompanied by their respective legal advisors, expressed objections (exceptions).

Meanwhile, the defendant Loka Sangganegara, through his team of legal advisers, stated that he did not file an exception.

Previously, it was known that the defendant Akhmad Najib confirmed that he signed the Regional Grant Agreement (NPHD) which became one of the basis for disbursing grant funds for the construction of the Sriwijaya Grand Mosque in 2015 and 2017 with a total value of IDR 130 billion.

He conveyed this when he was summoned as a witness in a trial at the Palembang District Court, last Thursday, September 30. The signing began when he received the NPHD file from the defendant Ahmad Naasuhi, former Acting Head of the People's Welfare Bureau of the South Sumatra Provincial Government Secretariat (who has now been sentenced to eight years in prison) around November-September 2015.