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7 years in prison for Gayus Tambunan

Gayus Tambunan, the tax official at the centre of a scandal that exposed a wide network of corruption among Indonesian law enforcers and bureaucrats, has been sentenced to seven years in prison.


The sentence was far less than the 20 years being sought, but the panel of judges said it could act only on the limited indictment provided by prosecutors, which did not touch on scores of corrupt activities that Gayus confessed to.

Before being taken to prison, Gayus told reporters yesterday he accepted the verdict but that he was a scapegoat.

Investigators had failed to follow up his revelations about corruption by the director-general of taxation and senior prosecutors, he said.

Gayus amassed $3 million despite being a mid-level official at the tax office. He gained notoriety not only for his sensational allegations of corruption, but also for bribing his way out of prison on 68 occasions while awaiting trial, including to travel overseas and to a tennis tournament in Bali.

Not included in the indictment presented by prosecutors to the South Jakarta court were bribes allegedly paid to senior prosecutors, judges and police by Gayus, as well as payments he allegedly received from almost 150 companies he gave favourable tax rulings to.

Among those companies were three linked to the prominent business tycoon Aburizal Bakrie, who is also the head of Golkar, the political party that is a coalition partner in the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Mr Bakrie denies the allegations.

Gayus's corrupt handling of the tax affairs of a medium-sized seafood company was included in the indictment.

He was found guilty of this, and of bribing some low-level prosecutors, police and one judge to secure his acquittal in a corruption trial last March.

Many analysts have criticised the handling of Gayus's case, which was led by the graft-tainted police and attorney-general' s office rather than the highly regarded and independent Corruption Eradication Commission.

Dr Yudhoyono on Monday responded to the criticism by ordering an audit of all the companies handled by Gayus and an investigation into all the institutions involved in the saga.

Gayus was also fined 300 million rupiah ($35,000).
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