Garuda Indonesia Ex-CEO’s Sentence Reduced
Emirsyah Satar, former CEO of Garuda Indonesia (GA, Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta), saw his prison sentence reduced to five years by a specialist corruption court at the Central Jakarta District Court on July 31. The court also overturned the conviction of his co-defendant, Soetikno Soedarjo.
Satar, who led Garuda from 2005 to 2014, was initially sentenced to eight years in prison and fined IDR1 billion (USD61,500) in June for his involvement in corrupt procurement practices involving CRJ1000s and ATR72-600s. This latest sentence is his second for corruption while managing the state-owned airline, following a six-year sentence imposed in 2020 for misconduct related to Rolls-Royce engine contracts.
The reasons for the reduction in Satar’s sentence were not specified in this week’s ruling. However, his acknowledgment of responsibility might have influenced the court’s decision. Satar previously argued that these new charges were connected to his 2020 conviction, suggesting that the recent hearings were a retrial of matters already adjudicated. This argument was rejected in June.
“I admit that I am only an ordinary human being who is not free from mistakes and I am ready to be responsible for my actions,” Satar stated, as reported by Kompas.
Prosecutors alleged that Satar provided Soetikno, a commercial advisor representing ATR and Bombardier Aerospace, with confidential procurement plans. It was claimed that Soetikno passed these plans to his clients. Additionally, Satar was accused of altering the seating capacity in the procurement plan from 70 to 90 seats without board approval. This led to Garuda purchasing ATR72-600s and CRJ1000ERs, which were deemed unsuitable for the airline’s needs, resulting in losses of USD609 million.
In a separate ruling, Soetikno Soedarjo had his conviction overturned and was released from custody. The court determined that prosecutors had not sufficiently proven his involvement in the alleged offences.
Sources: AirGuide Business airguide.info, bing.com, ch-aviation.com