The Attorney General\'s Office has secured Rp 477,359 billion in compensation from a corruption convict in a coal procurement corruption case, Kokos Leo Lim.
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The Attorney General\'s Office has secured Rp 477,359 billion in compensation from a corruption convict in a coal procurement corruption case, Kokos Leo Lim.
The Attorney General\'s Office reported the payment of compensation to the public by showing cash amounting to Rp 100 billion in a press conference led by Attorney General ST Burhanuddin in Jakarta, Friday (15/11/2019). All the money has been submitted to the state treasury (Kompas, 11/16/2019).
The success of executing the payment in the corruption case will certainly attract the public eye. So far it has not been easy to withdraw funds from perpetrators of corruption. Some citizens want those who commit acts of corruption to be impoverished, including by confiscating all of their assets or paying state losses through compensation, as ruled by the court.
Compensation is an additional sanction as stipulated in the Criminal Code (KUHP). Specifically for corruption cases, Law No. 31/1999 on the eradication of corruption crimes states that additional penalties for corruption convicts does not only included compensation money. The court may also decide on additional penalties in the form of seizure of the assets of the perpetrators, the closure of part or all of the companies related to the perpetrators for a maximum of one year, or the revocation of all or part of certain rights or certain benefits received by the perpetrators from the government.
The corruption court, including at the Supreme Court (MA) level, has on several occasions imposed additional penalties in the form of revoking the political rights of the corruption convicts. The convicts must pay the replacement money too. If they are unable to, the assets of the convicts can be confiscated and auctioned off by the state.
If they do not have the property to pay the replacement money, the corruption convicts can be given an additional prison sentence, the duration of which should not exceed the basic charges. Several convicts prefer to undergo additional prison sentences. In fact, the additional sentence is intended to deter people from committing crimes.
Until June 2019, the total amount in compensation that the attorney general could enforce was no more than Rp 82.34 billion, higher than in 2018 at Rp 56.35 billion. Corruption proceeds returned to the state by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) between 2014 and 2017 reached around Rp 112.7 billion to Rp 497.6 billion per year.
The success of the Attorney General\'s Office in securing large amounts of compensation deserves to be appreciated. Now, it is about figuring out how can we encourage prosecutors, the Corruption Eradication Commission and other law enforcement agencies to more consistently recover state losses, such as by "forcing" the corruption convicts to pay replacement money. If they do not want to pay, search their properties and confiscate and auction them for the state. Make the perpetrators of corruption feel discomfort in this country, because then they will become penniless.