"My family and I thank the national police for defending me in the higher court. I extend my best thanks to the national police chief," he told ANTARA News.
As an active police officer who had worked for 30 years, Susno said he remained committed to finishing the remaining term of his duty.
The national police`s will to provide Susno with legal assistance for his appeal at the higher court had been revealed by the police spokesman Inspector General Anton Bachrul Alam on Monday.
"Susno is a police officer so that we must help him. This is our obligation," Anton said.
Susno was sentenced to three and a half years in jail after the South Jakarta district court`s panel of judges found him guilty in a corruption case on March 24.
The sentence was lighter than the public prosecutor`s demand that the court sentence him to seven years in jail and fine him Rp500 million.
Susno, who had ever been detained at the police`s mobile brigade jail in Kelapa Dua, Depok, from May 11, 2010 to February 17, 2011, was accused of receiving a bribe of Rp500 million over the Salmah Arowana Lestari case.
He was also accused of abusing the funds for securing the 2008 elections in West Java Province.
In their verdict, the panel of judges also asked Susno to pay for Rp4 billion unless the payment would be taken from his properties.
The judges found him guilty of receiving the bribe over the Salmah Arowana Lestari case and disbelieved that he knew nothing about the misuse of budget of West Java province`s 2008 elections.
In response to the court`s verdict, Susno said he would appeal to the higher court.
Regarding his cases, on February 14, 2011, the public prosecutor had demanded that Susno be sentenced to seven years in jail, considering that, as the police chief detective, Susno did not support the efforts to combat corruption crimes and was not deeply sorry for what he had done.
In the Salmah Arowana Lestari case, the police investigators based their decision to detain Susno on the testimonies of such people as Sjahril Djohan, Haposan Hutagalung, and Adjunct Senior Commissioner Syamsu Rizal.
The arowana fish farm case was related to a dispute between a Singaporean businessman (only identified as HKH) and his Indonesian counterpart (only identified as AS alias Am).
HKH had reportedly given Rp100 billion to his Indonesian partner to engage in the arowana fish business in Pekanbaru, Riau Province.
The Singaporean businessman had also handed over arowana fingerlings with a total value of Rp32 billion.
Initially, the police considered the arowana fish case to be a civil one but later the National Police Headquarters changed its mind and categorized it as a criminal one.
Susno Duadji himself had ever argued that the arowana fish case should be a civil lawsuit because it was more of a business dispute than a criminal offense.
This business dispute itself occurred when Susno Duadji was still the national police chief detective.
Susno Duadji has become so popular in Indonesia after revealing the case of rogue tax official Gayus Tambunan, who had billions of rupiah in his bank accounts.
(Uu.R013/HAJM)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
