Four Lhokseumawe City Government Officials Defendant Of Road Light Tax Corruption Sued 8 Years In Prison

The defendant in the criminal act of corruption in the lighting tax attended the trial at the Corruption Court at the Banda Aceh District Court in Banda Aceh, Thursday (18/7/2024). ANTARA/M Haris SA

BANDA ACEH - Public Prosecutor (JPU) of the Lhokseumawe District Attorney's Office has demanded four Lhokseumawe City Government (Pemkot) officials, defendants in criminal acts of corruption in street lighting tax, each eight years in prison.

The claim was read out by Public Prosecutor Zilzaliana during a trial at the Corruption Court at the Banda Aceh District Court in Banda Aceh, Thursday, July 18.

The four defendants are Mawardi Yusuf as the Head of the Regional Financial Management Agency (BPKD) of Lhokseumawe City 2020-2022, Azwar as the Head of the Lhokseumawe City BPKD 2018-2020, Asriana as the Head of the Lhokseumawe City BPKD Finance Subdivision, and Muhammad Dahri as the Budget User Authority at the Lhokseumawe City BPKD.

In this case, the Public Prosecutor also charged another Lhokseumawe City Government official with a law of seven years in prison. The official is Sulaiman as the Treasurer of the Expenditure of the Lhokseumawe City BPKD.

The trial with the panel of judges was chaired by Teuku Syarafi and accompanied by R Deddy Harryanto and Heri Alfian, each as member judges. The defendants attended the trial accompanied by a team of legal advisors.

In addition to imprisonment, the Public Prosecutor also demanded that the defendants pay a fine of Rp. 200 million, a subsidiary or a substitute sentence of six months in prison.

The defendants were also required to pay compensation for state losses of Rp. 631 million each. If they do not pay, they will be sentenced to four years in prison each.

Especially for the defendant Sulaiman, if he does not pay state losses, he will be sentenced to three years and six months in prison.

The prosecutor also demanded that the defendants Mawardi Yusuf, Azwar, and Sulaiman be deprived of their political rights for five years.

According to the prosecutor, the defendants were found guilty of violating Article 2 in conjunction with Article 18 Paragraph (1) letters a, b, d Paragraph (2) and Paragraph (3) of Law Number 31 of 1999 as amended by Law Number 20 of 2001 concerning criminal acts of corruption in conjunction with Article 55 Paragraph (1) 1 in conjunction with Article 64 Paragraph (1) of the Criminal Code.

Previously, the prosecutor in his indictment stated that the defendants distributed and received a sum of money from the intensive collection of street lighting taxes carried out by PLN.

In fact, the defendants did not have the right to receive intensive tax from public street lighting. This is because the collection of public street lighting taxes is carried out by PLN, not the defendants.

"The street light tax collection was carried out by PLN, so that the defendants were not entitled to receive intensive receipt from the tax collection for street lighting," said the public prosecutor.

The public prosecutor said that PLN in the 2018 to 2022 period deposited a road lighting tax at the Lhokseumawe City Regional Financial Management Agency (BPKD) Office with a total amount of more than Rp72 billion.

"The money from the street lighting tax collected by PLN should have been deposited into the regional treasury as the original regional income. However, the defendants made a policy by distributing it as an intensive collection," said the prosecutor.

"The actions of the defendants resulted in state financial losses based on the results of the calculation of state audit institutions reaching Rp3.15 billion," said the Public Prosecutor.

The defendants stated that they would file a defense at the following trial. The panel of judges will continue the trial next week by listening to the memorandum of defense of the defendants.