JAKARTA (Reuters): An Indonesian court on Friday sentenced a former trade minister to 4.5 years in jail for improperly granting sugar import permits that authorities said had caused nearly 600 billion rupiah (US$36.84 million) in state losses.
Thomas Trikasih Lembong served as trade minister in 2015 and 2016 under President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo. Once seen as Jokowi's close aide, Lembong turned into one of the government's staunchest critics after leaving office.
Judges at the corruption court in the capital Jakarta, said Lembong, as minister, was guilty of improperly granting import permits for sugar to private companies when the Southeast Asian country had a surplus of sugar.
Indonesia's sugar output in 2015 was 2.49 million metric tons, while consumption was 2.12 million. In last year's presidential election, Lembong was the campaign manager for candidate Anies Baswedan. The election was won in a landslide by Prabowo Subianto, whom Jokowi backed. Lembong, who was arrested days after Prabowo's inauguration last year, had claimed in court that his prosecution was due to his involvement in the opposition camp, local media reported.
Prosecutors had denied that his arrest was politically motivated.
"The defendant was proven legally and convincingly to be guilty of having committed a corruption act," Judge Purwanto S. Abdullah said, to jeers from the crowd.
Before handing down the sentence, the judges had argued that the import permits did not go through the proper procedures of consulting with other state bodies and that he had prioritised "capitalistic" interests over social justice.
However, the judges said he did not enrich himself, leading to a shorter sentence than the seven years prosecutors had demanded. Prosecutors said Lembong had enriched the private companies.
Holding up his handcuffed hands, Lembong told reporters after the sentencing that he would consider whether or not to appeal, saying judges had ignored his defence team. His lawyer Ari Yusuf Amir did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Friday.
($1 = 16,285.0000 rupiah) (Reporting by Ananda Teresia and Stanley Widianto; Editing by Sharon Singleton) - Reuters
