Former Garuda Indonesia CEO jailed for eight years for bribery

JAKARTA: An Indonesian court on Friday (May 8) jailed Emirsyah Satar, a former chief executive of Garuda Indonesia, for bribery and money laundering related to procurement of planes and engines from Airbus and Rolls-Royce, his laywer said. 

Satar’s lawyer Luhut Pangaribuan said his client had been given an eight-year sentence and fined S$2 million (US$1.4 million) by the country’s corruption court.

Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) had indicted Satar, CEO of Garuda from 2005 to 2014, over payments from a businessman via a third party for the procurement by Garuda Indonesia of Roll-Royce Trent 700 engines and Airbus A320 and A330 planes.

The indictment also related to the procurement of Airbus planes for PT Citilink Indonesia, a unit of Garuda.

In 2017 Rolls-Royce agreed to pay authorities more than US$800 million to settle charges after an investigation by the US Justice Department and Britain’s Serious Fraud Office into alleged bribery of officials in six countries in schemes that lasted more than a decade.

Airbus in February this year agreed to pay a record US$4 billion in fines after reaching a plea bargain with prosecutors in Britain, France and United States over alleged bribery and corruption stretching back at least 15 years.

Satar, who had previously denied wrongdoing, will decide next week whether to appeal against his sentence, said Pangaribuan.