Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has received a letter from Setya Novanto, former House speaker who is on trial for a multi-million dollar graft case, requesting the status of a justice collaborator.

"The letter has been submitted, and we are evaluating it," KPK spokesman, Febri Diansyah, said here on Thursday.

Justice collaborator refers to a suspect or convict who agrees to cooperate with criminal justice authorities.

"If the application for justice collaborator is accepted, than his legal charges will be reduced," Febri stated.

Anti-graft prosecutors charged the former Golkar Party chairman with embezzling US$7.3 million and receiving a Richard Mille watch worth $135 thousand from the Rp5.9 trillion ($439 million) electronic identity card procurement project, which caused Rp2.3 trillion in state losses.

Novanto was charged with article 2 (1) or article 3 of law no. 31/1999 and law no. 20/2001 on corruption eradication and article 55 (1) of criminal code.

"Article 2 and 3 of the law has a life sentence charge. I think if it is accepted, similar to what happened to Andi Agustinus, the legal charge could be reduced to eight years of jail sentence. This might become his consideration to request the JC status," he added.

However, KPK would monitor the individuals uncovered by Novanto, who are linked to the graft case.

"We will monitor the individuals whose role in the case will be uncovered by Novanto, and whether Novanto would be consistent in admitting his wrongdoing," Febri revealed.

Reported by Benardy Ferdiansyah
(S022/INE)
EDITED BY INE/H-YH

Reporter: antara
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2018