Jakarta - An Indonesian court on Wednesday jailed two lawmakers for their involvement in a multi-million-dollar bribery case that has embroiled the country's central bank. Judges at Jakarta's anti-corruption court sentenced Hamka Yandhu to three years in prison and Anthony Zeidra Abidin to four and a half years for receiving bribes from Bank Indonesia.
The court also ordered the two politicians to pay a fine of 150 million rupiah (13,820 dollars) and 250 million rupiah respectively.
Bank Indonesia paid 31.5 billion rupiah to members of parliament using money embezzled from a foundation financed by the central bank.
The money was allegedly intended to stop a parliamentary inquiry into the suspected misuse of billions of dollars in emergency bailout funds injected to banks at the height of the 1997-98 financial crisis and to speed up a deliberation on the amendments of the central bank law in 2004.
The payments were made through Yandhu and Abidin, who headed the parliament's financial and banking sub-commissions.
Chief Judge Masrurdin Chaniago said the two politicians were guilty of violating the 2001 anti-corruption law by misusing their position as lawmakers to receive bribe money.
State prosecutors had sought four and six years in prison for Yandhu and Abidin respectively.
Yandhu told the court that he accepted the verdict and would soon pay the fine.
The central bank has undergone a series of reforms after various corruption investigations in the past decade, particularly over its role in lending billions of dollars in emergency funds to banks that were collapsing during the Asian financial crisis.
In October, the anti-corruption court jailed a former central bank governor, Burhanuddin Abdullah, for five years for his role in the same case.
Two other senior central bank officials, Oey Hoeng Tiong and Rusli Simanjuntak, were each sentenced to four years in prison.
Indonesia ranks as one of the world's most corrupt countries. Over the past year, investigations by the graft commission have led to the arrest of several high-profile figures, including a top prosecutor and legislators.
Since President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's anti-corruption campaign started, officials ranging from governors and former ministers have been jailed on graft charges.
