The Jakarta Corruption Court yesterday sentenced suspended Golkar Party lawmaker Zulkarnaen Djabar to 15 years imprisonment for his role in a Quran procurement scandal.

The sentence is heavier than the 12-year prison term sought by prosecutors who had charged him with rigging the tender for the procurement of the Quran and laboratory equipment at the Religious Ministry.

The court also handed down an eight-year prison term for Zulkarnaen’s son, Dendy Prasetya, for aiding his father in the scandal along with another Golkar politician who has also been convicted of graft Fahd El Fouz, who acted as a broker between the pair and the ministry, the English daily The Jakarta Post reported today.

Zulkarnaen, who served on the House of Representatives commission overseeing religious affairs, and his son were guilty of jointly abusing the former’s authority during the deliberation of the budget for the procurement project, and thus had violated a law on corruption, said the panel of judges at the trial.  

“With the intervention that was made by both defendants and Fahd, the procurement process in the ministry became inefficient as the budget ballooned due to the tender being rigged to benefit specific companies,” said Judge Hendra Yospin, reading out the verdict.  

The panel of judges also found the father and son guilty of receiving Rp14 billion (RM4.4 million) in bribes from Abdul Kadir Alyadrus, director of PT Sinergi Pustaka Indonesia and commissioner of PT Adhi Aksara Abadi, for them to rig the bidding process of the projects so that both companies could win the Quran tender.   

The value of the Quran procurement projects were Rp22 billion (RM6.9 million) in 2011 and Rp50 billion (RM15.7 million) in 2012.

Besides the two Quran procurement projects, Zulkarnaen, assisted by his son and Fahd, also asked the ministry’s officials to award PT Batu Karya Mas the project to procure laboratory equipment worth Rp31.2 billion (RM9.8 million), the daily reported.

Zulkarnaen and Dendy received Rp3 billion (RM945,000) and Rp4 billion (RM1.25 million) respectively, while the rest of the money was delivered to other Golkar politicians, including Fahd and, allegedly, House Deputy Speaker Priyo Budi Santoso.  

Besides the prison term, the court also demanded that Zulkarnaen and Dendy each pay Rp300 million (RM94,000) in fines or serve an additional month in prison. Both were also ordered to reimburse a total of Rp11.4 billion (RM3.6 million) in state losses caused by the scandal.

Zulkarnaen and his son will file appeals.

- Bernama