Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) prosecutors have indicted meat importer PT Indoguna Utama directors Arya Abdi Effendi and Juard Effendi for bribery.
Prosecutors allege that both Arya and Juard handed over Rp 1.3 billion (US$134,000) to former lawmaker and Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) president Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq so he could use his influence with Agriculture Minister Suswono, who is also a PKS member, to grant the company’s request for an increased beef import quota.
“Arya Abdi, Juard and Maria Elisabeth Liman announced their intention to give Rp 1.3 billion to Luthfi Hasan,” prosecutor M Roem said on Wednesday.
Roem said that both Arya and Juard had convincingly violated the Corruption Eradication Law punishable by up to five years in prison.
According to the prosecutors, the Rp 1.3billion fee was only part of Rp 40 billion that had been promised by PT Indoguna owner Maria Elizabeth Liman. Maria said that she would give Luthfi that amount if the latter succeeded in influencing the minister to grant the company’s request for an increase of 8,000 tons of beef in its import quota.
Arya and Juard were apprehended as they handed the money to Ahmad Fathanah, Luthfi Hasan’s close aide, at their office in Duren Sawit, East Jakarta. They are the first suspects in the case to stand trial
- prosecutor – a legal representative who officially accuses someone of committing a crime by bringing a case against that person in a court of law
- apprehended – to catch and put a person under police control; to arrest
- aide – a person whose job is to help someone important, such as a member of a government or a military officer of high rank:
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