An Indonesian court on Thursday sentenced a House of Representatives’ former deputy speaker, Azis Syamsuddin, to three and half years in jail for his involvement in a bribery case.

Mr Syamsuddin, a senior politician of the Golkar Party, was found guilty of violating the country’s corruption law.

He was said to have given 3.1 billion Indonesian rupiahs (about $216,000) and $36,000 in bribes to Corruption Eradication Commission’s (KPK) former investigator Stepanus Pattuju and lawyer Maskur Husain in 2020.

Mr Syamsuddin did this to prevent his name and the name of another cadre of the Golkar Party from showing up in a KPK investigation into a graft case in Central Lampung district, Lampung province.

When reading the verdict at the anti-corruption court in Jakarta, the chairman of the panel Muhammad Damis said he would also pay a fine of 250 million rupiahs (about $17,400) as a substitute for another four-month imprisonment should he fails to pay.

Mr Damis added that Mr Syamsuddin’s political right to run for public office would be suspended for four years after serving his sentence.

Mr Syamsuddin was arrested at his residence in South Jakarta by KPK investigators in September 2021, and he resigned from his post shortly after his arrest. 

(Xinhua/NAN)