Jakarta. A Jakarta court on Monday sentenced four individuals, including a US citizen, to 12 years in prison each for their role in a graft scandal centering around the lease of a satellite by the Indonesian Defense Ministry to fill a vacant orbital spectrum.

The defendants include three executives of ICT service provider company Dini Nusa Kusuma (DNK) and a retired Navy officer who worked at the Defense Ministry during the time of the scandal.

The American citizen, Thomas Anthony Van Der Heyden, who serves as a senior advisor in DNK, was the last to be convicted in separate sentencing hearings at the Central Jakarta District Court.

Earlier on the same day, a joint panel of civilian and military judges found DNK Chief Commissioner Arifin Wiguna, DNK Chief Executive Officer Surya Cipta Witoelar, and former Defense Ministry Director General Rear Admiral (ret.) Agus Purwoto guilty of corruption in the same case.

As part of the verdict, the court ordered the four defendants to return the stolen money, amounting to Rp 153 billion ($10.2 million) for Agus and Rp 100 billion for each of the other three. Failure to repay the amount would result in an additional three years added to their prison sentences.

All the defendants were found guilty of "committing corruption collectively as mentioned in the primary indictment," the court announced.

The graft scandal was triggered after Indonesia lost control of the 123 degrees east orbital slot when the Garuda-1 satellite was deorbited in 2015. To prevent the permanent loss of the L-band spectrum rights at the 123E orbital slot, the Indonesian Defense Ministry leased the Artemis satellite from British satellite operator Avanti Communications in 2016.

However, the ministry failed to pay the outstanding lease, and in June 2018, a UK arbitration tribunal ordered the ministry to repay Avanti $20 million.

Investigations by Indonesian prosecutors revealed that the defense ministry official unlawfully signed the satellite lease agreement with Avanti, with the involvement of Dini Nusa Kusuma executives as brokers.

The scandal resulted in a financial loss of Rp 453 billion ($30.2 million) to the state, according to court documents.

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