On November 8, a former Indian communications secretary was sentenced to 15 years in prison after being found guilty of fraud in an incident that resulted in losses of more than US$ 500 million.
Previous minister of communication and information technology Johnny Gerard Plate was found guilty by Indonesia’s anti-corruption court of abusing his position to profit from a communications project.
According to presiding judge Fahzal Hendri, the accused was sentenced to 15 years in prison after being found lawfully and eloquently guilty of committing problem alongside others.
The court also mandated that the 67-year-old pay a fine of 1 billion Indonesian rupiah ($ 63,750 ) or serve an additional six months in prison.
Additionally, he was given the choice between having his property seized by the court and paying 15.5 billion dirhams in compensation.
Plate was detained in May for his involvement in a communication ministry-led organization’s base transceiver stations ( BTS ) project, which aimed to give remote areas of the archipelago access to 4G internet.
According to the Attorney General’s Office, 8.03 trillion rupiah ( US$ 540 million ) were lost as a result of project misconduct.
Plate was found guilty by the court of taking 10 billion rupiah ( US$ 638,500 ) from the project.
The AGO identified five additional defendants, including an executive of a Chinese telecoms behemoth Huawei company, and reported that it had discovered irregularities in the purchasing operation involving local and foreign companies.
Numerous people leaders have been detained in Indonesia in recent years for corruption.
A former minister of social politics was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2021 after being found guilty of accepting US$ 1.2 million in money to provide food aid to underprivileged individuals affected by the coronavirus pandemic.