Judge Fazhal Hendri Said That The Corruption Of Former DPR Leader Azis Syamsuddin Had Damaged The Image Of Parliament

Former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Azis Syamsuddin undergoes a verdict reading at the Corruption Crime Court (Tipikor) (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - The panel of judges assessed that the former deputy chairman of the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR) from the Golkar Party faction, Azis Syamsuddin, had damaged the image of parliament because of his corruption.

"The thing is burdensome, the defendant's actions do not support the government's program in eradicating corruption, the defendant's actions damage the public's image and trust in the DPR RI institution," said panel of judges member Fazhal Hendri while reading the verdict at the Corruption Court (Tipikor) Jakarta, Antara, Thursday, February 17th.

Apart from being deemed to have damaged the image of the DPR, another aggravating factor in Azis's actions was that the person concerned did not admit his guilt and was involved in convolutions during the trial. "The mitigating thing is that the defendant has never been convicted and has family responsibilities," added Judge Fazhal.

The panel of judges consisting of Muhammad Damis, Fazhal Hendri, and Jaini Bashir sentenced Azis to 3.5 years in prison plus a fine of IDR 250 million, subsidiary to 4 months in prison for Azis.

"Imposing additional penalties against the defendant in the form of revocation of the right to be elected in public office for 4 years starting from the time the defendant has finished serving his main criminal period," said the chairman of the panel of judges, Muhammad Damis.

In this case, the KPK initially investigated allegations of corruption related to the management of the Special Allocation Fund (DAK) of the Central Lampung Regency APBN-P for the 2017 Fiscal Year since October 8, 2019 where it was suspected that Azis and Aliza Gunado were involved as bribe recipients.

Azis is trying to prevent himself and Aliza Gunado, who is a cadre of the Golkar Party, from being suspects by the KPK by seeking help from KPK investigators and being introduced to Stepanus Robin, who has been a KPK investigator since August 15, 2019 from the National Police.

Stepanus Robin and Maskur Husain expressed their willingness to help in exchange for a sum of Rp. 4 billion with a calculation of Rp. 2 billion each from Azis and Aliza Gunado, with an advance of Rp. 300 million and Azis agreed.

Stepanus Robin received an advance of Rp. 100 million, while Maskur Husain received Rp. 200 million. The money was transferred from Azis' BCA account in four stages, amounting to IDR 50 million each on 2, 3, 4, and 5 August 2020.

On August 5, 2020, Azis again gave 100 thousand US dollars in cash to Stepanus Robin at Azis' official residence on Jalan Denpasar Raya, South Jakarta.

A total of 36 thousand US dollars was handed over to Maskur Husain in front of the Central Jakarta District Court while the remaining 64 thousand US dollars was exchanged at a "money changer" for a total of Rp 936 million.

Part of the money from the exchange was given to Maskur Husain in the amount of Rp. 300 million in early September 2020 at the Borero Keramat Sentiong Restaurant.

In addition to these gifts, from August 2020 to March 2021, Azis gave money to Stepanus Robin and Maskur Husain several times, totaling 171,900 Singapore dollars.

Stepanus Robin then exchanged the money at a "money changer" into rupiah in the amount of IDR 1,863,887,000. Some of the money was given by Robin to Maskur Husain in early September 2020 in the amount of IDR 1 billion and IDR 800 million still in September 2020.

Thus, the total bribes given by Azis Syamsuddin to Stepanus Robin Pattuju and Maskur Husain were Rp.3,099,887,000 and US$36 thousand.

"In fact, Stepanus Robin did nothing regarding the case that allegedly involved the defendant and Aliza Gunado, while Maskur Husain only carried out monitoring via the internet regarding the case," said judge Fazhal.

Regarding the decision, Azis Syamsuddin and the KPK prosecutors stated that they had thought about it for 7 days.