Indonesian given 30 months' jail for rigging SEA Games football match

An Indonesian national known only as Nasiruddin has been sentenced to 30 months' imprisonment for engaging in football match-fixing at the recently ended 28th SEA Games.

Nasiruddin was charged with working with two others, including a Singapore citizen, to "corruptly agree" to pay S$15,000 to a Timor Leste Football Association technical director called Orlando Marques Henriques Mendes.

That sum was paid to arrange for the Timor Leste football team to lose their match against Malaysia, the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau said in a press release on Tuesday.

The bureau added that Nasiruddin had also agreed to corruptly offer bribes to members of the Timor Leste football team to induce them to lose the same match.

Timor Leste lost to Malaysia 0-1 on May 30.

"Singapore adopts a zero tolerance approach towards corruption, and match fixing of any form is not condoned in Singapore," the bureau said in its statement, adding that it "will not hesitate to take action against any party involved in match fixing related activities".