Former Regent Of Muara Enim South Sumatra Sued 10 Years In Prison

Former Regent of Muara Enim Muzakir Sai Sohar (ANTARA)

PALEMBANG - The South Sumatra High Prosecutor's Office (JPU) has demanded that the former Muara Regent Enim Muzakir Sai Sohar be in prison for 10 years and a fine of Rp200 million. Prosecutors believe Muzakir Sai is guilty of the bribery case.

Prosecutor for the South Sumatra Prosecutor's Office Indra stated that the defendant received funds worth US $ 400,000 as a fee for the conversion of production forest land into permanent forest in Muara Enim Regency in 2014.

"As well as imposing an additional sentence against the defendant in the form of compensating the state for US $ 400,000 in losses," Indra said reading out the charges as quoted by Antara, Wednesday, May 19.

If the defendant is unable to pay the state losses, all the assets of the defendant will be auctioned and if this is insufficient, a five-year imprisonment will be compensated.

The prosecutor stated that the defendant violated Article 12 B in conjunction with Article 18 of Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 31 of 1999 concerning Eradication of Corruption as amended by Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 20 of 2001.

At the trial chaired by the chief judge of Bongbongan Silaban, the prosecutor gave a weighting point in the form of the defendant as the regional head not supporting the eradication of corruption and ignoring state losses.

The defendant, who heard the charges from Rutan Pakjo Palembang in a virtual manner, stated that he would submit a pledoi or a note of defense.

Meanwhile, the two other defendants in the case, but with separate files, were respectively the Managing Director of PT Perkebunan Mitra Ogan Anjapri who was sentenced to eight years in prison, and the former Head of Accounting for PT Perkebunan Mitra Ogan Yan Satyananda was sentenced to seven years in prison.

Muzakir Sai Sohar was named a suspect by the South Sumatra Prosecutor's Office along with three other people, namely former President Director of PT Perkebunan Mitra Ogan Anjapri, former head of accounting for PT Perkebunan Mitra Ogan Yan Satyananda and consultant Abunawar Basyeban (deceased).

It started when PT Perkebunan Mitra Ogan asked the defendant to issue a recommendation to change the function of a conversion production forest area to a permanent forest area through a direct appointment mechanism.

Furthermore, PT Perkebunan Mitra Ogan collaborated with legal consultant Abunawar Basyeban in handling these changes with a contract value of IDR 5.8 billion.

In practice, PT Perkebunan Mitra Ogan undertakes the management themselves and not by the Abunawar law office as stated in the contract.

However, PT Perkebunan Mitra Ogan still transferred funds to the Abunawar law office amounting to Rp. 5.8 billion through the Abunawar account in four stages, but on that same day the money was withdrawn by PT Perkebunan Mutra Ogan amounting to Rp.

The funds withdrawn were disbursed and exchanged in dollar denominations to US $ 400,000, then handed over to Muzakir Sai Sohar in four stages to smooth the issuance of a recommendation letter.

Then Muzakir Sai Sohar issued a recommendation letter as the Regent of Muara Enim to the Minister of Forestry of the Republic of Indonesia as completing the requirements for managing changes in the function of conversion production forest (HPK) to permanent production forest (HP) or limited production forest (HPT) in Muara Enim Regency.