Bali tourism official cleared of WTM budget swindle
A former Bali tourism official, who was jailed for mishandling World Travel Market funds, has been released after a successful appeal hearing in the High Court.
I Gede Nurjaya, the former head of Bali’s provincial tourism, was arrested in October and after a trial in May was sentenced to one year in prison, fined $5,700 and ordered to pay $5,555 in compensation to the government.
According to reports in the Bali media, he has been acquitted after the appeal court declared that the lower court had failed “to finally and convincingly prove that Nurjaya had committed the corruption with which he was originally chargedâ€.
As a result, the appeal court ordered that all rights, privileges and positions enjoyed by Nurjaya prior to his incarceration and conviction be restored and that he be immediately released from prison.
Public prosecutors have indicated that they will seek to appeal the acquittal to the Supreme Court.
I Gede Nurjaya and his deputy had been charged with conspiring to defraud the state by seeking double reimbursement from both national and provincial tourism budgets for the cost of Bali’s representation at World Travel Market in London in 2008.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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