The Jakarta-based Corruption Eradication Commission, popularly known as KPK, declared Monday that a Japanese businessman is a suspect in a bribery case involving an Indonesian judge.
"KPK has declared ST (Toshio Shiokawa), president director of PT Onamba Indonesia, as suspect in a bribery case involving Imas Dianasari, former judge at the Ad-Hoc Court in charge of Industrial Relations in Bandung," KPK Spokesman Johan Budi told reporters.
In January, the judge was found guilty of taking bribes and was sentenced to six years in jail by the Bandung Corruption Court, which also ordered her to pay 200 million rupiah ($21,796) in fines.
Imas, then a judge at the ad-hoc industrial relations court, was guilty of taking 352 million rupiah in bribes over a verdict handed down on April 1 last year that favored electric wire producer PT Onamba Indonesia, which faced a lawsuit over layoffs involving 176 workers.
She was also caught accepting 200 million rupiah from Odih Juanda, PT Onamba Indonesia's human resource development manager, at a restaurant in Cileunyi, West Java, under an agreement in which she would influence the Supreme Court's verdict.
In January, the court sentenced Odih to four years in prison for handing the bribes to Imas.
Johan said Shiokawa has been charged under an article of the 2001 Law on Corruption Eradication and faces up to 15 years in jail and fines up to 750 million rupiah.
He did not elaborate Shiokawa's exact role in the case, but a KPK source earlier said he "allowed Odih to use the company's money to bribe Imas."
Johan added the commission was still trying to determine the whereabouts of Shiokawa and has asked Japanese police to search for him.