Saturday, June 6, 2009
AFP - Saturday, June 6JAKARTA (AFP) - - Indonesian prosecutors Friday recommended four years in prison for a relative of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono who allegedly embezzled millions of dollars from the country's central bank.
Former Bank Indonesia (BI) deputy governor Aulia Pohan along with three of his colleagues had faced a life sentence for misusing 100 billion rupiah (10.1 million dollars) in bank funds.
However, prosecutor Rudy Margono told the anti-corruption court that they now sought a four-year prison term and a fine of 300 million rupiah each.
The prosecutors recommended a lighter sentence because the defendants had not committed any crime previously.
"They acted cooperatively (during the trial) and never used the money (for the personal interests)," he said.
Pohan and his colleagues allegedly misused 31.5 billion rupiah of the embezzled money to bribe lawmakers.
The remaining 68.5 billion rupiah was used to hire lawyers to defend other bank officials accused of complicity in the embezzlement of billions of dollars that went missing during the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis.
The corruption court previously sentenced former bank governor Burhanuddin Abdullah to five years and gave two other former officials four years in prison each over the case.
Yudhoyono was elected in 2004 on a promise to fight corruption.
He has said he was saddened by the allegations against Pohan, the father-in-law of his son.
The case is seen as a litmus test for the liberal ex-general, who seeks to be re-elected this year for another five-year term as president.
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