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</b>Jakarta.</b>  The Anti-Corruption Court on Tuesday sentenced suspended tax official Edi Setiadi to six-and-a-half years in jail for his role in a Rp 81.43 billion ($9 million) tax evasion case involving a bank in West Java between 2001 and 2002.

Edi, the former chief tax investigator at the West Java Tax Office in Bandung, manipulated the tax returns of provincial administration-owned lender PT Bank Jabar-Banten in exchange for Rp 2.55 billion in bribes, Judge Nina Indrawati ruled.

The court also ordered Edi to pay a fine of Rp 200 million, failing which he faces an additional six months behind bars.

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) previously estimated the tax fraud at Rp 44.3 billion, but the court revised that figure based on witness testimony to Rp 81.43 billion.

KPK prosecutors had initially sought a 12-year sentence for Edi, alleging that in 2001 Bank Jabar was supposed to have paid Rp 129.2 billion in taxes, which Edi slashed to Rp 74 billion.

In 2002, the lender owed the state Rp 51.8 billion, which Edi again reduced to Rp 25.57 billion, prosecutors said.

However, Judge Sofialdi said the court viewed Edi’s actions as a single act of graft done repeatedly, and not two separate instances of graft as the prosecution had argued.

“The defendant has refused to admit to his crime,” Sofialdi continued. “The defendant has also marred the credibility of the tax office and betrayed people’s trust in that institution.”

Both Edi and the KPK prosecutors have said they will appeal the ruling to the Jakarta High Court by next week’s deadline.

“As much as I respect the court’s decision, I’m far from satisfied with the ruling and will certainly file an appeal,” Edi told the court after the verdict was handed down.

He claimed that he was the victim of a conspiracy concocted by his former subordinates in order to frame him.

Lead prosecutor Rudi Margono said the KPK would also appeal the sentence in order to get it extended.

Last month, the KPK named four other Bandung-based tax officials as suspects for allegedly conspiring in the tax fraud.

The other suspects include Roy Yuliandri, Dedy Suwardi, Muhammad Yazid and Dien Rajana Mulya.

Edi is alleged to have taken Rp 565 million from the Rp 2.55 billion kickback and given the rest of the money to the other four.

The KPK has also named Bank Jabar’s former chief accountant, Hery Achmad Buchori, as a suspect in the case.

Bank Jabar’s former director, Umar Syarifuddin, has already been convicted in the case and is currently serving a seven-year jail sentence.