JAKARTA (Yosefardi) – Anis Matta, President of Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), had Thursday (Sept 26) made his testimonies in the Jakarta Corruption Court as witness in the trial of graft and money laundering cases related to the beef import quota under the Ministry of Agriculture.
Anis Matta has given testimonies for the trial with defendant Ahmad Fathanah called as a close aide of former PKS President Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq. He was summoned by the prosecutor team from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) related to money laundering practices allegedly committed by Fathanah.
To the trial, Anis admitted that he knew Fathanah since 2012, as a middleman of Ilham Arief Sirajuddin, Mayor of Makassar. According to Anis, Ilham was seeking support from PKS to run in the South Sulawesi gubernatorial race early this year.
In previous trial, Ilham has also already testified as witness. He told to the trial that through Fathanah, he paid Rp8 billion to the PKS for their support for his candidacy in South Sulawesi gubernatorial race. According to Ilham, initially PKS asked for Rp10 billion.
Ilham, who lost the gubernatorial race, confirmed that Fathanah mediated the whole deal with PKS, including communicating with PKS leaders like Luthfi and Anis.
The graft and money laundering cases of beef import quota in the Ministry of Agriculture are under the public spotlight following the accusation that the money collected from the beef import quota were part of political funding scheme aimed to raise Rp2 trillion from the three ministries controlled by PKS politicians to fund the party’s political campaign for next year’s elections.
The third ministries are the Agriculture Ministry, the Communications and Information Technology Ministry and the Social Affairs Ministry. The Muslim-based party PKS, however, denied those illegal fund accusation.