Indonesia's ex-central bank chief guilty of graft

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Indonesia's former central bank governor was sentenced Wednesday to five years in jail and fined $22,500 in connection with an $11 million corruption case — the latest in a string of scandals to hit the bank.

Burhanuddin Abdullah, 60, was found guilty of using Bank Indonesia funds to hire lawyers to defend former senior bank officials implicated in a bailout scandal during the Asian financial crisis 10 years ago.

He was also found to have transferred embezzled state funds to lawmakers, said Gusrizal, presiding judge of the corruption court. He uses only one name.

Abdullah, who served as the central bank governor from 2003 until last May, has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and told reporters Wednesday that he would appeal.

The case has been closely scrutinized by the local media because it could implicate two former legislators who are now Cabinet ministers. Aulia Tantowi Pohan, the father-in-law of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's son, was also officially named a suspect by the Corruption Eradication Commission on Wednesday.

"Frankly and honestly, I am sad to hear that. But on the other hand ... the law has to be upheld and I should not intervene," Yudhoyono said about Pohan.

The central bank has been the subject of several investigations since the 1997-98 financial crisis, when it lent billions of dollars in emergency funds to banks that later closed without paying their debts.

It was the second corruption verdict handed down to a governor at the beleaguered central bank since Yudhoyono was elected in 2004 on a pledge to weed out graft in the Southeast Asian nation.

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