JAKARTA (Yosefardi) – Ratu Atut Chosiyah, Banten Governor and Golkar Party key leader, faced her first trial held Tuesday (May 6) as a graft defendant in a bribery scandal related to the handling of post-election dispute of Lebak Regency implicating Akil Mochtar, the disgraced former Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court.
The trial was held at the Jakarta Corruption Court in Kuningan, South Jakarta by the prosecutor team from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).
Atut is accused along with Tubagus Chaery Wardana aka Wawan (Atut’s younger brother, Golkar politician and husband of South Tangerang Mayor Airin Rachmi Diany) for bribing Akil Mochtar with Rp1 billion bribe money through Susi Tur Andayani (an advocate).
The bribe scheme was in order to favor a lawsuit filed by the losing pair candidate of Lebak regency election endorsed by Golkar.
The KPK’s prosecutor team then charged Atut with Article 6 Paragraph 1 letter a or Article 13 of the Anti Corruption Law No. 20/2001 juncto Article 55 paragraph 1 letter 1 of the Criminal Code (KUHP).
Atut had been detained at the KPK detention center since Dec.20, 2013 following KPK’s decision to name her as one of suspects in the case on Dec. 17, 2013. (haryantos@yosefardi.biz)