Makassar, CNN Indonesia —
The witness revealed the term ‘White House’ in the continuation of the corruption trial for gratification of infrastructure development projects with the defendant who bribed the Governor of South Sulawesi Nurdin Abdullah |, Agung Sucipto, Thursday (10/6).
In the trial at Makassar Corruption Court In this case, witness Raymond Halim, who is a director at one of Agung Sucipto’s companies, did not explain in detail to the Public Prosecutor (JPU) regarding the term “White House” contained in the contents of his WhatsApp message to the defendant for giving fee 5 percent.
Raymond also avoided confirming that he was one of the directors of a company owned by Agung Sucipto. He admitted that he was only an employee who had been asked by the defendant several times to record a number of his instructions, including those concerning fee 5 percent to someone with the name ‘White House’.
It is known, the White House or the White House is the presidential palace of the United States.
During the trial, prosecutors continued to seek information from Raymond about the White House. However, the witness was reluctant to be honest about the term.
“I do not know [Gedung Putih merujuk ke siapa]. I was only asked to take notes. Pak Agung often asks me to take notes so I can be reminded later,” said Raymond.
The attitude of the witness made the head of the Corruption Eradication Committee, Ibrahim Palino, raise his voice and ordered the witness to tell the truth in the trial.
“You are a director of a company. You took notes and didn’t know who the White House meant. Don’t lie, I ask the witnesses to be honest,” said the chairman of the panel of judges.
Meanwhile, KPK Public Prosecutor Ronald Worotikan who was met during the suspended trial said that Agung probably knew basically who or what the term ‘White House’ meant.
“I’m sure the witness knows what (the White House) meant. But if the witness says he doesn’t know. We can’t force it either. What is clear is that we’ll show evidence later,” he explained.
In the same trial, Nurdin Abdullah, who is now the inactive Governor of South Sulawesi, was also presented as a witness. In his testimony, Nurdin admitted that he received Sin$150 thousand from the Director of PT Agung Perdana Bulukumba Agung Sucipto. The money was used to fund witnesses in the 2020 Bulukumba Pilbup, for the Tomy Satria Yulianto-Makkasau candidate pair.
“Agung came to the house with Singapore dollars of 150 thousand dollars or up to 500 million rupiahs,” said Nurdin, who testified online from the KPK detention center, Jakarta.
If it is converted into an exchange rate of Rp. 10,760 as of June 9, the value of the money is around Rp. 1.6 billion. Nurdin admitted that he received the money in 2019.
Nurdin said Agung had come to his official residence several times since 2019. During the meeting, the PDIP politician admitted that he often discussed developments in South Sulawesi and political issues.
“The money is for the purposes of the Pilkada to pay for party witnesses. For the 2020 Bulukumba Pilkada, we received it. It was used to help our candidates in Bulukumba, the pair of Tomy and Makkasau,” said Nurdin.
The pair Tomy and Makkasau are known to be carried by PDIP, PKB, and PBB. However, the pair lost in the 2020 Bulukumba Pilkada.
(mir/kid)
– .
