Indonesian jailed 30 months for matching-fixing at recent SEA Games

SINGAPORE - An Indonesian man has been sentenced to 30 months in jail for fixing a football match at the recent South East Asian (SEA) Games in Singapore.

Nasiruddin was charged for engaging in a conspiracy with two other persons, including a Singaporean, for offering $15,000 to Orlando Marques Henriques Mendes for the Timor-Leste football team to lose their match against Malaysia.

Besides trying to bribe Orlando, the technical director of the Timor-Leste Football Association, Nasiruddin was also charged for being part of a criminal conspiracy to bribe members of the Timor-Leste football team to lose the same match, the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) said in a statement Tuesday.

Timor-Leste's match against Malaysia was to be played on May 30. The bribes were offered to Orlando on May 28 at the Orchid Country Club, in the presence of his conspirators Singaporean Rajendran s/o R Kurusamy and former Timor Leste footballer Moises Natalino De Jesus.

Rajendran is a former associate of notorious Singaporean match-fixer Wilson Raj Perumal.

"Singapore adopts a zero tolerance approach towards corruption, and match-fixing of any form is not condoned in Singapore," CPIB said.

CPIB has been working with the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the Football Association of Singapore (FAS), and other agencies to keep the local football scene clean.

grongloh@sph.com.sg