An Indonesian court today sentenced a former diplomat who had been posted to Malaysia to 20 months in jail for corruption and ordered him to pay a 100 million-rupiah (RM40,000) fine.

Judges at Jakarta's anti-corruption court found former consul-general Erick Hikmat Setiawan guilty of corruption by charging illegal fees for passports and visas for Indonesians working in Malaysia.

Setiawan, who was posted at the Indonesian mission in Penang, from February 2004 to October 2005, had authorised an illegal increase in issuing passports from RM120 to RM140, judges said.

Alternatively, Setiawan charged Indonesians RM220 for a quicker "under-the-table" passport service, they said.

Prosecutors, who had recommended Setiawan be jailed for three years, said the Penang mission had issued 29,615 passports between 2003 to 2005.

Setiawan said he would appeal.

Indonesians make up the bulk of more than a million illegal workers in Malaysia, many of them from tsunami-hit Aceh province.