The sentence was pronounced by a panel of judges at the Corruption Crime Court at the Jakarta District Court on Wednesday.
"Sentenced the defendant Johnny Gerard Plate to prison for 15 years and a fine of Rp1 billion, or a six months' imprisonment as a replacement," Chief Judge Fahzal Hendri said while reading the sentence.
The former minister was also asked to pay Rp15.5 billion in compensation within one month of the sentence becoming legally binding.
If Plate fails to pay the amount, his property will be confiscated and auctioned by the prosecutor to cover the replacement money. If he does not have sufficient assets amounting to that value, he will be imprisoned for another two years, Hendri added.
In their decision, the panel of judges declared Plate guilty of committing corruption together with other defendants.
"Declaring that the defendant Johnny Gerard Plate, as mentioned above, has been legally and convincingly proven according to the law to be guilty of jointly committing criminal acts of corruption and gratification, as in the primary indictment of the public prosecutor," the judge said.
Plate was proven guilty of corruption as per the primary indictment's Article 2 paragraph 1 in conjunction with Article 18 of the Corruption Law in conjunction with Article 55 paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code.
The public prosecutor (JPU) with the Attorney General's Office had also sought a prison sentence of 15 years for Plate. However, he had demanded a higher compensation of Rp17.8 billion, subsidiary to 7.5 years in prison.
In his indictment, the prosecutor said that Plate and the other defendants allegedly committed corruption in purchasing process of infrastructure for 4G-based BTS and supporting infrastructure for packages 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 of the Ministry of Communication and Information's Telecommunication and Informatics Accessibility Agency (BAKTI) in the period from 2020–2022.
According to the indictment, a number of parties benefited from the project: Plate received around Rp17 billion; Anang Achmad Latif Rp5 billion; and Yohan Suryanto around Rp453 million.
Furthermore, Irwan Hermawan, as commissioner of PT Solitechmedia Sinergy, received Rp119 billion; Windi Purnama Rp500 million; and Muhammad Yusrizki Rp50 billion and US$2.5 million.
Meanwhile, a consortium of FiberHome PT Telkominfra and PT Multi Trans Data (PT MTD) received almost Rp3 trillion for packages 1 and 2; a consortium of Lintasarta Huawei SEI received Rp1.5 trillion for package 3; and the IBS - ZTE consortium got Rp3.5 trillion for packages 4 and 5.
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Translator: Fianda Sjofjan R, Resinta Sulistiyandari
Editor: Arie Novarina
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