Joko Driyono, the former acting chairman of the Soccer Association of Indonesia (PSSI), was sentenced to 18 months in prison for destroying evidence in the soccer match fixing case during a hearing on Tuesday (23/7/2019) at the South Jakarta District Court.
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JAKARTA, KOMPAS —Joko Driyono, the former acting chairman of the Soccer Association of Indonesia (PSSI), was sentenced to 18 months in prison for destroying evidence in the soccer match fixing case during a hearing on Tuesday (23/7/2019) at the South Jakarta District Court. However, his motives for destroying the evidence remain unknown.
Joko was seen as a potential lead in solving the root problems of the “soccer mafia” that has been under investigation since late last year by the National Police’s Anti-Soccer Mafia Task Force.
“This is regrettable. Joko’s sentence was merely for destroying evidence, [and did not] dig deeper into why he did it,” said Eko Noer Kristiyanto, who studies legal cases in sports.
Parties that deliberately attempted to destroy evidence could have particular interests or connections in the related cases. Without investigating deeper into the motives for destroying the evidence, the public would not learn whether Joko was involved in match fixing or not.
Kartim Haeruddin, who headed the three-member judicial panel comprising himself, R. Lim Nurohim and Sudjarwanto, read out Joko’s sentence during the hearing on Tuesday at the South Jakarta District Court. The sentence was less than the 30 months prosecutors had demanded.
Joko said he would think about whether to appeal his sentence. Sigit Hendradi of the South Jakarta Prosecutors’ Office said that the office would also consider the options in whether to accept or appeal the sentence.
Joko was found to have instructed Muhammad Mardani “Dani” Morgot, an employee of the PT Liga Indonesia national soccer league management company, to gather some items from Joko’s office at the Liga Indonesia in Rasuna Office Park, Setiabudi, Kuningan, South Jakarta.
“The defendant intentionally urged, instructed or persuaded another person to commit an illegal act,” said Kartim.
Dani gathered items from Joko’s office on two separate occasions. The first occasion was on Wednesday, 30 Jan. 2019, in response to Joko’s instructions to Dani to take all the papers from his desk and desk drawers, as well as a laptop. Dani was told not to touch anything else in Joko’s office. The second occasion occurred when Joko asked Dani to delete CCTV footage of activities that took place in Joko’s office on a digital video recorder (DVR).
The judges determined that Joko’s conduct had violated stipulations in Article 235 juncto Article 233 and Article 55 Point 1(2) of the Criminal Code. The articles were not used in the charges against Joko, but were still applicable in the case.
Joko’s lawyer Mustofa Abidin said in a written statement that the judges once mentioned during the trial that Joko was not involved in the match fixing and that Joko had no reason to tamper with evidence. “In the sentence, it is mentioned that all seized evidence will be returned and that none will be used in other cases,” said Mustofa.