Jakarta. The Anti-Corruption Court in Central Jakarta on Tuesday rejected the preliminary defense statement by former Communication and Informatics Minister Johnny Plate and ordered the trial to proceed. 

Johnny is accused of taking bribe money in the government’s internet infrastructure project in the country’s most remote regions and getting involved in a sinister conspiracy that hampered the project.

Presiding Judge Fahzal Hendri said that the preliminary defense statement, which sought to cancel the legal proceedings, challenged "the core issues of the indictment that should be examined in the next court hearings," and was consequently rejected.

A similar ruling was issued for two fellow defendants, Anang Achmad Latif, the former CEO of the Communication Ministry's Information and Telecommunication Accessibility Agency (BAKTI), and Yohan Suryanto, a consultant from the University of Indonesia.

An attorney for Johnny said his client could accept the ruling and is prepared to undergo hearings. The defense team is also preparing new witnesses to counter allegations from prosecutors.

“We will carefully observe the cross-examination of witnesses in the upcoming hearings. If prosecutors accuse Mr. Johnny of crimes he never committed, we will present witnesses yet to be disclosed during the investigation stage for our client,” lawyer Achmad Kholidin told reporters at the Central Jakarta District Court.

The trial is set to resume next week.

In the opening hearing last month, prosecutors indicted Johnny of accepting Rp 17.8 billion ($1.2 million) in bribes from companies that were awarded the internet infrastructure project, which has been delayed until today.

Fellow defendants Anang and Yohan received Rp 5 billion and Rp 453 million, respectively.

Other individuals implicated in the scandal include Irwan Hermawan, commissioner of Solitech Media Sinergy; Galumbang Menak Simanjuntak, CEO of Mora Telematika Indonesia; Mukti Ali, Account Director of Huawei Tech Investment; Windi Purnama, director of Multimedia Berdikari Sejahtera; and Muhammad Yusriki Muliawan, director of Basis Utama Prima.

Muhammad Yusriki is notably accused of enriching himself by around $5 million from the project, while Irwan is accused of accepting Rp 119 billion.

According to the indictment, the project to build 4G base transceiver stations (BTS) and other infrastructure covering around 7,900 villages in the outermost regions is divided into several packages with a substantial budget for business entities that are supposed to carry out the construction.

The budget allocation includes Rp 2.9 trillion for the FiberHome, Telkominfra, and Multi Trans Data consortium, Rp 1.58 trillion for the Lintasarta, Huawei, and SEI consortium, and Rp 3.5 trillion for the IBS and ZTE consortium.

The project aimed to provide cellular services in 4,200 sites by the end of 2021, but until March last year, only 958 sites were covered with 4G BTS.

Prosecutors said the scandal inflicted a loss of Rp 8 trillion ($533.7 million) on the state.

For 2022, the government targeted to provide BTS for another 3,000 sites, but the indictment made no mention of its progress.

According to prosecutors, Johnny requested a budget of Rp 25 trillion for the whole project while he was in office in 2020.