JAKARTA (Yosefardi) – The Jakarta High Court rejected an appeal from graft suspect Budi Mulya and dropped heavier jail sentence to the former Deputy Governor of Bank Indonesia from 10 to 12 years in prison after being proven guilty for committing corruption related to the bailout of Bank Century (now Bank Mutiara).

Spokesperson of the Jakarta High Court Muhammad Hatta confirmed the court ruling on Monday (Dec. 8).

As reported earlier, panel of judges at the Jakarta Corruption Court sentenced Budi Mulya to 10 years in prison as he has been proven guilty for receiving Rp1 billion bribe money from the bank owner Robert Tantular related to the approval and the disbursement of the Rp689.394 million short-term loan facility (FPJP) to Bank Century.

In addition, panel of judges led by Afiantara also ordered Budi to pay Rp500 million in fine or serve 5 month additional jail time.

The Corruption Court’s ruling, however, was lighter than the demand from the Corruption Eradication Commission’s (KPK) prosecutors. KPK’s prosecutors demanded 17 years in prison for Budi and also the obligation to pay Rp800 million in fine or serving 8 month additional jail time. (haryantosuharman@yosefardi.com)