印尼高官滥发伐木执照被判入狱14年！

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印尼高官滥发伐木执照被判入狱14年
Indonesia politician gets 14 years in jail for illegal permits, forest corruption
March 13, 2014
http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0313-dparker-zainal-corruption-riau.html



印尼前廖内省省长因贪污和非法批准伐木执照被判入狱14年和罚款10亿印尼盾。
The former governor of Indonesia’s Riau province has been sentenced to 14 years in prison and ordered to pay almost $90,000 in fines for illegally issuing logging permits in Riau and bribes linked to construction projects for sports facilities.

On Wednesday, the anti-corruption court in Pekanbaru found former Riau Governor Rusli Zainal guilty of embezzlement relating to the illegal issuance of logging permits in the central Sumatran province, which has seen huge areas of forest lost to palm oil and pulp & paper companies in recent years.

According to prosecutors, the illegal permits were given to nine companies operating in Riau, all suppliers of two larger pulp companies – Indah Kiat Pulp and Paper (IKPP) and Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper (RAPP) – Indonesia’s state news agency Antara reports.


IKPP and RAPP are subsidiaries of pulp and paper giants Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) and Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL), respectively.


Indah Kiat/APRIL 的A4纸，马来西亚人应该都很熟悉的品牌（非常可恨的，我办公桌上就有一叠），就是非法获得执照的涉案公司

虽然在2009年也曾有县长因为同样的理由被判入狱11年，至今没有任何涉案的公司被起诉，政府也没有撤销这些非法发出的伐木执照。
Tengku Azmun Jaafar, the former head of Pelalawan district in Riau, where many of the companies operate, was earlier sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2009 in relation to the permits. However, so far none of the companies involved have been charged and the government has yet to revoke the illegally issued permits.

“It’s not just Rusli Zainal, who released the permits. The companies should also be punished,” Isnadi Esman of the Riau Peatland Community Network told Mongabay-Indonesia.

While NGOs in Riau have collected information on the role of the implicated companies and submitted that information to corruption investigators, so far “none [of the cases involving companies] have been processed,” Isnadi said.

However, now that Rusli has been convicted, anti-corruption courts and investigators may look more seriously at the role these companies played and whether they may also be guilty of corruption.

“Because it has already been proven that the companies that received [permits] from the defendant have profited from criminal corruption in the form of timber yields, then these corporations are directly involved in these crimes,” said I Ketut Suart, a member of the panel of judges that ruled on Rusli’s case.

“This should be processed and brought to trial in the Anti-Corruption Court,” he added.

The permits allegedly led to the destruction of 30,879 hectares of forest in Riau. This destruction cost the state Rp 265 billion, or around $23 million, in losses, presiding judge Bachtiar Sitompul said on Wednesday, as quoted by the Indonesian news portal liputan6.com.

Rusli was also found guilty of receiving kickbacks from a state-owned construction firm that won contracts to build facilities for the 2012 National Games in Riau and of funneling bribes to national- and provincial-level lawmakers in connection with graft-ridden National Games projects.

The court sentenced Rusli to 14 years in prison, less than the 17 years asked for by prosecutors, and ordered him to pay Rp 1 billion in fines.

Corruption is a massive problem in Indonesia’s forest sector. A 2012 Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) survey found that the Forestry Ministry is considered the most corrupt institution in the country.

However, the KPK, which is responsible for investigating corruption cases in Indonesia, has been slow to take up cases related to forestry crimes. Rusli’s conviction marks one of the first high-profile graft convictions related to forest crimes in Indonesia.

“I feel shocked that I was sentenced to 14 years,” Rusli said at the court on Wednesday. “I will file and appeal.”

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印象中，没有马来西亚高官曾经因为乱批准伐木执照被判处如此重刑。

盖世聪明的高官不但不用坐14年牢，还可以当上州元首。

虽然说印尼这样打击贪污的力度很值得让人欣慰，但是看来看去好像只是找个人扛下责任罢了，没有解决到问题（撤销执照）和处罚涉案财团。看来要打贪真的不容易，希望印尼加油

值得一提的是，APP & APRIL 这两间涉案公司也是导致新马近期烟霾的主要公司
（参考：http://biz.sinchew.com.my/node/77381 ； http://www.channelnewsasia.com/n ... sident/1037158.html）