Bekasi Mayor Mochtar Muhammad, center
Bandung.7 March 2012. The Supreme Court sentenced former Bekasi mayor Mochtar Mohammad to six years in prison and US$30,000in fines. If he fails to pay the fine he will have to serve additional six months in jail. The court also ordered Mochtar to pay $76,000 in restitution to the state.
Corruption Eradication Commission(KPK) prosecutor I Ketut Sumardhana said that as soon as he gets the official copy of the court ruling he would put Mochtar Mohammad in prison immediately.
In November last year, the Bandung Corruption Court in West Java cleared Mochtar of all of four counts of corruption, including rigging the selection process for the Adipura city cleanliness award to make Bekasi the winner in 2010 and an attempt to bribe the city council to approve the 2010 budget.
Many questioned the verdict, particularly when it emerged that one of the judges, Ramlan Comel, was a former lawyer and businessman who himself was sentenced to two years in jail on corruption charges before his own acquittal at an appellate court.
