Mochtar Mohamad (born 26 October 1964) is an Indonesian politician who was the Mayor of Bekasi between 2008 and 2012, when he was convicted of corruption and bribery and sentenced to prison. He was released in 2015, and returned to politics.

Early life

Mochtar was born in

Gorontalo Gorontalo (Gorontalo language, Gorontaloan: ''Hulontalo'') is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia on the island of Sulawesi. Located on the Minahasa Peninsula, Gorontalo was formerly part of the province of North Sulawesi until its ...

on 26 October 1964 and was educated there, graduating from high school in 1987. He later earned a bachelor's degree in 2007.

Career

He joined Bekasi's city council in 1999, and he served there until 2003 when he became the deputy mayor. In the 2008 mayoral election, he ran as a mayoral candidate and won after securing 50.5 percent of the votes in a three-candidate race. During his mayoralship, the city government issued incentive payments to neighborhood (i.e. ''

rukun tetangga A ''rukun tetangga'' (abbrievated RT, literally "pillar of neighbours") is an administrative division of a village in Indonesia, under a ''rukun warga''. The RT is the lowest administrative division of Indonesia. The ''rukun tetangga'' operates ...

'' and ''

rukun warga A ''rukun warga'' (abbreviated RW, literally "pillar of residents") is an administrative division of Indonesia under the village or ''kelurahan'' (or under: ''dusun'' or village). , and the formation of local communities is through consultation ...

'') chiefs in the city. In March 2009, Mochtar took on a personal loan of Rp 1 billion (around US$100,000), and then used parts of the city's budget to pay off the debt, totalling Rp 639 million being transferred to his personal account. Additionally, in December 2009, some Rp 4.3 billion from the city's budget was used to bribe some city council members into passing the city's 2010 budget. Another bribery case occurred in 2010, when financial auditors from the

Audit Board of Indonesia The Audit Board of Indonesia (Indonesian: ''Badan Pemeriksa Keuangan Republik Indonesia'', literally ''Financial Audit Board of the Republic of Indonesia'') is a high state body in Indonesia which is responsible for evaluation of management and ac ...

received money to give a positive assessment, and he later also bribed judges to win the award. The

Corruption Eradication Commission Corruption Eradication Commission ( id, Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi), abbreviated as KPK, is an Indonesian government agency established to prevent and fight corruption in the country. Firli Bahuri, an active police general, is the current cha ...

(KPK) formally accused Mochtar on corruption charges in November 2010, covering the misuse of funds, bribery of the city council and Adipura judges, with the auditor bribes still at that time under investigation. The Corruption Court in

Bandung Bandung ( su, ᮘᮔ᮪ᮓᮥᮀ, Bandung, ; ) is the capital city of the Indonesian province of West Java. It has a population of 2,452,943 within its city limits according to the official estimates as at mid 2021, making it the fourth most ...

released its verdict regarding Mochtar's case in 2011, declaring him innocent of all charges, which was the first time a KPK suspect was declared such. One of the judges in the ''ad hoc'' trial was later found by the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

to have been convicted of corruption in the past. Following an appeal to the Supreme Court, Mochtar was instead found guilty of corruption charges and was sentenced to six years in prison on 7 March 2012.

Post-jail

By June 2015, Mochtar had been released from imprisonment. He attempted to run against his former deputy Rahmat Effendi in the 2018 mayoral elections, but his party PDI-P decided against endorsing him. Instead, his wife Sumiyati Mochtar Mohamad ran as PDI-P's candidate. He has declared that he will run in the 2024 mayoral election.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mochtar Mohamad 1964 births Living people People from Gorontalo (province) Indonesian politicians convicted of corruption Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle politicians People from Bekasi Mayors and regents of places in West Java