Former youth and sports minister Imam Nahrawi dances with youths in Mimika, Papua, in this file image. The Jakarta Corruption Court has sentenced Nahrawi to seven years in prison for bribery. (Photo courtesy of kemenpora.go.id)
The Jakarta Corruption Court has sentenced a former Indonesian youth and sports minister to seven years in prison for bribery.
Imam Nahrawi was convicted on June 29 and fined 400 million rupiah (US$28,000). He was also ordered to pay restitution amounting to 18.1 billion rupiah and banned from holding public office for four years after finishing his prison term.
The punishment was lighter than that demanded by prosecutors who sought a 10-year prison sentence.
Nahrawi was charged by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in September last year for accepting 11.5 billion rupiah in bribes and an additional 8.64 billion rupiah in gratuities from the National Sports Committee between 2014 and 2018 in order to accept grant proposals.
According to the KPK, the payments went through his assistant, Miftahul Ulum, who was sentenced to four years in prison.
Nahrawi had denied any involvement in bribery.
“In the name of God and the Prophet [Muhammad], I did not receive the 11.5 billion rupiah,” he was quoted by kompas.com as saying.
Nahrawi is the second youth and sports minister convicted of bribery. In 2014, Andi Alfian Mallarangeng was sentenced to four years for graft connected to a sports facility project in Hambalang, West Java province.
Commenting on the ruling, Father Christian Paulus Siswantoko, executive secretary of the Indonesian bishops’ Commission for the Laity, said the prison sentence given to Nahrawi must act as a warning to state officials to conduct themselves honorably as public figures.
“This should make all ministers realize that they should play a significant role in eradicating corruption. It would be ineffective if they only speak out against corruption without doing anything about it,” the priest told UCA News.