While announcing their verdict at South Jakarta District Court on Tuesday, a panel of judges headed by Hariyadi found Ahyudin guilty of embezzling social funds disbursed by the Boeing Community Investment Fund (BCIF) as compensation for relatives of 189 victims of a Lion Air 610 crash in October 2018.
The verdict was consistent with the prosecutors' indictment that Ahyudin had violated Article 374 of the Criminal Code in conjunction with Article 55, Paragraph (1), Section 1 of the Criminal Code. However, the sentence awarded by the judges was lighter than the one demanded by the prosecutors.
The judges’ panel observed that the defendant's action caused public outrage and losses, particularly for the next-of-kin of the Lion Air crash victim and other recipients entitled to receive the money, and this was an aggravating factor in considering the sentence.
However, the judges also took into account that the defendant was straightforward, admitted his mistake, has a family, and has never received a prison sentence.
Responding to the sentence, Ahyudin and his legal representative sought seven days to consider whether to appeal the verdict.
Last December, the prosecutors demanded that Ahyudin and other co-defendants—Ibnu Khajar, ACT president director in 2019–2022, and Hariyana Hermain, ACT vice president for operations—be sentenced to four years in prison.
The prosecutors found all of them guilty of embezzling the compensation disbursed by BCIF for the relatives of the Lion Air 610 crash victims.
They further discovered that out of the Rp138,546,388,500 (US$8.86 million) in compensation received by ACT from BCIF, the philanthropic organization only distributed Rp20,563,857,503 (US$1.31 million) to the victims' relatives and other beneficiaries.
The remaining Rp117 billion (US$7.55 million) was used by the defendants in ways that were not authorized under the agreement with Boeing, they added.
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Translator: Tri Meilani A, Nabil Ihsan
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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