Indonesian police general, ex-health official get jail terms for graft

JAKARTA: Indonesia's anti-graft court sentenced a top police general and a former senior Health Ministry official to prison terms for graft in a major victory for the country’s main anti-graft agency.
Two-star police general Djoko Susilo was slapped a 100-year jail term for illegally amassing a fortune worth $18 million while serving as Indonesia’s top traffic policeman.
The police are viewed as one of the most corrupt institutions in Indonesia and cleaning up a culture of graft is seen as critical to improving the country’s image with investors.
“This is KPK’s biggest case that has been resolved so far in regards to the total value of assets,” said Bambang Widjojanto, deputy chief of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) , after the verdict.
Former National Traffic Police deputy Didik Purnomo has also been charged in the case but has yet to go on trial.
Susilo was found guilty of accepting kickbacks in the awarding of a contract for driving simulators while he was head of the National Police Traffic Corps.
In another high-profile case, a court sentenced Ratna Dewi Umar, the Health Ministry’s former director of medical services, to five years in jail for involvement in an embezzlement scandal involving the procurement of equipment to battle bird flu.
Umar was found guilty on Monday of marking up the cost of equipment purchased in 2007 for an outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus, resulting in a loss to the government of $1.2 million.
The Corruption Court also ordered her to pay a fine of $45,000 or face an additional three months in prison.
The equipment was used in a crisis response center set up by the ministry to deal with bird flu. More than 100 people died in Indonesia from the virus in 2007, making it the hardest-hit nation.
She denied any wrongdoing, telling the court she was carrying out orders from her boss, former Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari.
Police named Supari as a suspect last year, but she has not been charged. Supari, who was health minister from 2004 to 2009, told the Corruption Eradication Commission last year that she did not know the purchases were anomalous.