JAKARTA (Yosefardi) – The Supreme Court has granted the appeal filed by the KPK’s prosecutor team against Angelina Sondakh aka Angie, former politician of President SBY’s Democratic Party, and dropped a heavier jail term, from 4.5 years to 12 years.
In addition to jail sentence, panel of the Supreme Court judges led by Artidjo Alkostar also ordered Angie to pay Rp500 million in fines which can be substituted with eight months imprisonment.
The court’s panel also ordered Angie to reimburse Rp12 billion and US$2.35 million (Rp27.5 billion) to the state, or to take additional five years imprisonment.
According to the court’s panel, Angie deserved for a heavier punishment because she was proven guilty for proactively asking bribe money from Mindo Rosalina Manulang, a convict in the same case and director of PT Duta Graha Indah (DGI), a company owned by former Democratic Party Treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin.
Previously, both the Jakarta Corruption Court and the Jakarta High Court had given a lighter sentence to Angie with only 4.5 years jail term in the high-profile bribery case of the controversial project athlete dormitory, a project under the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
Commenting to the court’s ruling No. 1616 K/PID.SUS/2013, KPK Chief Abraham Samad praised the court’s panel. He said the verdict has fulfilled the general public’s sense of justice. He hopes that the verdict will give a deterrent effect to corruptors.
The high-profile bribery case of the controversial project athlete dormitory is one of various bribery cases that dragged down a lot of politicians from Democratic Party into convicts, suspects, and witnesses. The case along with several other cases have crashed the party’s electability into less than 10% as depicted from various surveys. (haryantos@yosefardi.biz)