Jail for former Indonesian trade minister over sugar imports a bitter blow for supporters
Thomas Lembong was jailed for 4½ years for illegally authorising certain sugar imports at the expense of the state when he was serving as the nation's trade minister in 2015-16.
Prosecutors requested a prison term of seven years, but a panel of judges gave Lembong a sentencing discount because they accepted he had not enriched himself in any of the supposedly corrupt deals.
The Harvard-educated investment banker is respected in Australian political circles for his work in the cabinet of then-president Joko Widodo's cabinet and later as the chief of the country's investment board.
Former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull credited Lembong with facilitating what became a strong friendship between the Australian leader and Widodo.
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But Lembong became a critic of Widodo in 2019. Significantly, he also served as an adviser to Anies Baswedan, who ran for president last year and was a serious challenger to Widodo's chosen successor, Prabowo Subianto. Anies could again run for president in 2029.
Lembong was arrested in October, days after Prabowo was sworn in as Indonesia's leader and a decade after the supposed crimes. The timing and allegedly 'cherry-picked' charges against a high-profile opponent to the Widodo-Prabowo alliance set off red flags among democracy watchers.
High-level corruption is common in Indonesia, and decisions about whom to prosecute and whom to leave alone are, rightly or wrongly, interpreted as signals from powerful people at the top.
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