Airlangga Did Not Receive An Application Letter To Be A Witness To Easing SYL

Syahrul Yasin Limpo/ANTARA/Agatha Olivia Victoria

JAKARTA - Spokesperson for the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs Haryo Limanseto said that Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto did not receive a letter of application to be a witness to mitigate (a de charge) in the trial of former Agriculture Minister Syahrul Yasin Limpo (SYL).

"We did not receive any letter," said Haryo, quoted by ANTARA, Monday, June 10.

Haryo was reluctant to comment further on the SYL trial. According to him, Airlangga was on his way to Russia for a bilateral meeting related to economic cooperation and the discussion of the Indo-Pacific.

Before leaving for Russia, Airlangga, he said, in the last three days attended the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) meeting in Singapore.

Previously, the SYL Legal Advisory Team, at the end of last week, had revealed that it had sent a letter asking President Joko Widodo, Vice President Ma'ruf Amin, and Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto, to be able to be a mitigating witness in the SYL trial.

However, the day the trial began on Monday, the SYL Legal Advisory Team said that the mitigating witnesses presented came from two state civil servants (ASN) when SYL served as Governor of South Sulawesi and cadres of the Democratic National Party (NasDem).

The witnesses in question are Abdul Malik Faisal, Rafly Fauzi, and Jufri Rahman.

In this case, SYL was charged with extortion and received gratuities totaling Rp44.5 billion in corruption cases within the Ministry of Agriculture (Kementan).

The extortion was carried out with the Secretary General of the Ministry of Agriculture for the 2021 period, Kasdi Subagyono, and the Director of Agricultural Equipment and Machinery of the Ministry of Agriculture in 2023 Muhammad Hatta, who was also a defendant.

The two of them are coordinators of collecting money from echelon I officials and their staff, including to pay SYL's personal needs.