Indonesia's anti-graft agency seeks life sentence against former parliament speaker

JAKARTA, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia's anti-graft commission sought maximum prosecution up to life sentence against former parliament speaker Setya Novanto who was on his initial trial over corruption charges on Wednesday.

Learning on non-cooperative stance demonstrated by Setya, Saut Situmorang, deputy chairman of Corruption Eradication Commission, or in Indonesian abbreviation KPK, said that Setya has the potentialities to receive maximum sentence should he take non-cooperative stance against the judging panel.

"The KPK has the rights to press for the prosecution. The maximum punishment may reach sentence to life or 20 years," Saut said to respond the trial process against the former parliament speaker.

Citing to different legal considerations based on article 2 and 3 in criminal code, he, however, said that Setya might get four and two years of sentences respectively.

Setya, who recently resigned himself from parliament speaker post, was reluctant to give clear responses to the judge's inquiries related to the mega corruption case that he embroiled in.

He was charged of enriching himself and others by embezzling state funds allocated for national digital ID card project. The amount he embezzled from the project was alleged to be 2.3 trillion rupiah (about 169.2 million U.S. dollars) from total allocation of 5.9 trillion rupiah (about 434.1 million U.S. dollars).

Setya was finally arrested by the KPK last month after his several attempts to dodge from the arrest.

Setya resigned from his post after being slammed behind bar at KPK detention facility. His position is now temporarily held by one of his deputies in the parliament until a parliament assembly selected the new speaker. Enditem