[Kabar-indonesia] Former RI diplomat jailed over illegal fees

[JoyoNews at aol.com]

The Jakarta Post
Tuesday, October 3, 2006

Former diplomat jailed over illegal fees 

Ary Hermawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Former head of the immigration office at the Indonesian Consulate in Penang, 
Malaysia, Muhammad Khusnul Yakin Payapo, was sentenced to 29 months in prison 
Monday for his role in a passport fee scam.

The Anticorruption Court said that Khusnul was found guilty of charging 
illegal fees to passport applicants during his tenure from 2003 to 2005. 

He was also fined Rp 100 million (about US$11,000) and ordered to pay damages 
amounting to Rp 405.3 million to the state for the losses he caused. He will 
have to serve another three months in jail should he fail to pay the fine and 
an additional six months if he does not pay the damages. 

The prosecution previously recommended that the court sentence him to four 
years in jail and order him to pay a fine of Rp 100 million and Rp 1.1 billion 
in damages. 

The consul marked up the priced for passport applicants at the consulate. The 
official price was lower than that charged to passport applicants. 

Khusnul, collaborating with other staffers and former consul general Erick 
Hikmat Setiawan, inflated the fee from the official price of between 90 and 120 
Malaysian ringgit (about US$25-33) to 140 ringgit. 

They also increased the family passport fee from 210 ringgit to 220 ringgit, 
and charged an additional 210-220 ringgit for expedited service. The practice 
caused 5 million ringgit or Rp 12.5 billion in state losses during Khusnul's 
tenure. 

The difference in the official and the inflated rates was divided among some 
staffers. Khusnul allegedly took a cut of 9.5 ringgit per passport. 

"The defendant received 155,919 ringgit or Rp 405 million," presiding judge 
Mansyurdin Chaniago said. The judges said that Khusnul, who worked at the 
consulate for 23 years, had abused his authority. 

Khusnul said he would consult with his lawyers over whether or not he would 
appeal the verdict. "Not all that was said in the verdict is true. There were 
no state losses. I did not benefit even a ringgit from state revenue," he said. 

His lawyer, Suharsyah, questioned the court's decision to use the financial 
report provided by the prosecution to determine the amount of the state losses. 

The court previously sentenced consul general Erick to 20 months in prison 
for his involvement in the graft case during his tenure from 2004 to 2005. He 
also was fined Rp 100 million and ordered to serve another three months in jail 
if he failed to pay the fine. 

The judges said Erick continued the policy of his predecessors who applied a 
double pricing scheme for passport services. He knew about the practice but 
did not stop it, the judges said. 

Erick, who said he would appeal, argued that the policy of applying a double 
pricing scheme had been going on since 1999, and thus previous consul generals 
should also be tried. 

"The thing is that they (consul generals prior to his tenure) served before 
the KPK (Anticorruption Court) was established (in 2002)," he said. 

He also said illegal fees were also applied at other consulates in Malaysia, 
such as those in Kinabalu, Johor Bahru and Tawau. 

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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