Head Of Musi Rawas Village, Who Leases Prostitutes And Gambles With Cash From BLT COVID-19, Sentenced To 8 Years In Prison

Illustration (Photo: Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - The head of Sukowarno Village, Musi Rawas Regency, South Sumatra, Askari (43) was sentenced to eight years in prison. Then Askari also had to pay a compensation fee of Rp. 187 million by the Palembang Corruption Eradication Committee.

Chairman of the panel of judges, Sahlan Effendi, stated in his decision that Askari was proven to have embezzled the COVID-19 Direct Cash Assistance (BLT) for gambling.

According to the judge, the funds were the remaining payments for the BLT COVID-19 funds for 156 beneficiary families (KPM) and instead diverted them for personal gain.

"The defendant is proven to have used the funds to play gambling, rent prostitutes and pay a down payment for his mistress's car," said Sahlan reading the verdict published by Antara, Monday, April 26.

The verdict was higher than the demands of the Public Prosecutor Kejari Lubuklinggau, who demanded that the defendant be sentenced to seven years in prison and a fine of Rp. 200 million.

The panel of judges considered the defendant violated Article 2 Paragraph (1) of Law Number 20 of 2001 concerning Amendments to Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning Eradication of Corruption in conjunction with Article 18 of Law Number 20 of 2001 concerning Amendments to Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning Corruption.

If the defendant is unable to pay the state losses, he will be compensated with 2.5 years imprisonment.

In addition to the actions of the defendant who did not support the eradication of corruption, his behavior using BLT COVID-19 funds to gamble became a weighting point for the verdict.

The defendant used IDR 70 million in BLT COVID-19 funds for lottery gambling and IDR 50 million for playing games, while the remaining IDR 31 million, IDR 5 million borrowed by people, IDR 6 million paid debts and IDR 15 for Eid celebrations and the rest paid down payments for car savings.

Based on the verdict, the defendant, through his attorney, Sufendi, stated that he would think about it, especially regarding the state compensation money.

Previously, the village of Sukowarno, which was led by the defendant, allocated funds amounting to Rp280 million for 156 heads of families who received direct village cash assistance (BLTDD) with a budget of Rp. 600,000 for three months.

However, the defendant asked the Chief of Finance for Sukowarno Village, Ratih, to propose a budget disbursement of Rp. 370 million by adding several new expenditure items.

Then the defendant came to Ratih with a blank check. The defendant asked her to sign the blank check on the pretext that it would be easier to withdraw aid funds from the bank during the disbursement schedule.

The defendant then disbursed Rp370 million from the bank in May 2020, then on May 22, 2020 the funds were distributed to 156 KK recipients of BLTDD for phase I of Rp. 93 million from the allocated Rp. 280 million.

Meanwhile, for stages II and III, the defendant did not distribute 187 million to the recipient, but instead used it to increase the wealth of the defendant.