Strengthen External Supervision

The House of Representatives is expected to finish deliberating the judiciary draft bill in early 2019. The draft bill expands the Judicial Commission’s authority to oversee the country’s judiciary and is expected to prevent judges from becoming involved in corruption.

KOMPAS/ALIF ICHWAN

Suspect Iswahyu Widodo, a judge of the South Jakarta District Court, wears a detainee jacket after being quizzed by investigators of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in Jakarta on Thursday (29/11/2018). Iswahyu and four other people were apprehended in an operation across South Jakarta. Iswahyu is believed to have accepted bribes in connection with a civil case he was handling.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – The House of Representatives is expected to finish deliberating the judiciary draft bill in early 2019. The draft bill expands the Judicial Commission’s (KY) authority to oversee the country’s judiciary and is expected to prevent judges from becoming involved in corruption.

Kompas records show that 14 judges have been embroiled in corruption cases in the last three years. In the most recent case, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) arrested on Tuesday (27/11/2018) two South Jakarta District Court judges, Iswahyudi Widodo and Irwan.

“I have spoken to the House Commission III chair and members. The judiciary draft bill will be completed in the next House session, as the current session is short. We are confident that we will finish deliberating [the bill] in the next session,” House Speaker Bambang Soesatyo said on Thursday (29/11) at the Senayan legislative complex in Jakarta.

He was referring to the third House session of 2018-2019, which begins in January. The current session ends on Dec. 13.

Prior to completing its deliberations on the draft bill, the House has urged the Judicial Commission to improve its supervision of judges and prevent them from becoming involved in corruption. The Supreme Court (MA) was expected to accommodate the commission’s supervisory authority. “The heads of all state institutions must develop statesmanship to truly understand their positions and duties,” said Bambang.

Punishment

House Commission III member Arsul Sani of the United Development Party (PPP) faction said that the draft bill would include a punitive authority for the commission to punish judges for ethical violations.

This would change existing practices based on Law No. 22/2004 on the Judicial Commission. Under the law, the commission may only provide the Supreme Court with punitive recommendations for judges that violated the code of ethics, while the court administered the punishment. “What has been happening is that the MA often does not carry out the KY’s recommendations. That is why we are including stipulations that will allow the KY to administer punishment,” said Arsul.

He said that the court often did not act upon the commission’s recommendations, as it deemed the judges’ violations to be a judicial technicality. To prevent the court from making such excuses in the future, the judiciary draft bill will separate judicial technicalities from ethics.

Supreme Court spokesman Suhadi said that the court had always strived to eradicate corruption in the justice system. In terms of training and monitoring judges, the court had issued several regulations, including Supreme Court Regulation No. 7/2017, No. 8/2017 and No. 9/2017, which restricted justices from meeting with parties involved in court cases, required them to request leaves of office, and regulated direct monitoring by supervisors.

Aside from these regulations, many others existed to “protect” judges from illicit activities, such as Article 6 of the Corruption Law, which stipulates a 15-year prison sentence for judges that accepted bribes. Professionally, judges are also bound by the judicial code of ethics, which was monitored by the Judicial Commission.

“We have many regulations to protect judges. There is no other profession as regulated by law as the judiciary. Even regents, governors, ministers and the president are not bound by specific punishments in the Corruption Law. Prevention measures have been taken by the MA and the KY,” said Suhadi.

Regarding the high prevalence of judges accepting bribes, Suhadi said that this would depend on the individual character of each justice.

However, former Supreme Court criminal chamber chair Djoko Sarwoko said that judges needed exemplary leaders at the top court. He cited several cases in which the Judicial Commission recommended punishment for a judge for an ethical violation, but with which the court refused to comply. The commission had even asked for a joint investigation with the court, but the judges in question retained their seats.

Djoko also said that the Supreme Court tended to be slow to respond. In one such example, the court leadership had delayed filling the position of its monitoring junior deputy. Djoko said this affected the effectiveness of the court’s monitoring capacity. “[The MA] has the only monitoring chief [who has] limited authority,” he said.

Separately, Dio Ashar Wicaksana, the head of the Indonesian Judicial Watch Society (MaPPI) newsletter at the University of Indonesia Law School said that a massive shift in the judicial culture was needed regarding not only justices and court officials, but also lawyers and parties involved in court cases.

“Many lawyers bribe court officials. They think of this not as a problem, but as normal practice. This is a systemic cultural problem that must be immediately and thoroughly resolved,” he said.

Delay

In the most recent corruption case, the Supreme Court fired Iswahyudi, Irwan and Muhammad Ramadhan, all East Jakarta District Court officials who were named as suspects by the KPK. Suhadi said that the top court’s monitoring body would soon launch an investigation into the officials’ supervisor.

Meanwhile, South Jakarta District Court spokesman Achmad Guntur said that the civil suit on PT Asia Pacific Mining Resources’ acquisition of PT Citra Lampia Mandiri, which was originally handled by Iswahyudi and Irwan, would be postponed.

The district court should have issued a ruling on court case No. 262/Pid.G/2018/PN Jaksel on Thursday (29/11). However, the court decided to appoint a new judicial panel to handle the case.

“A new judicial panel will soon be formed to take over the case Iswahyudi and Irwan handled. For now, the hearings will be postponed. The [legal] process will now depend on the new judicial panel, who will review the facts of the case,” said Guntur.

Iswahyudi and Irwan were arrested for allegedly accepting Rp 150 million (US$10,434,73) and S$47,000 in bribes over several transactions from the lawyers of a private entity involved in the case, who obtained the money from their client. The bribe was allegedly paid in exchange for manipulating an interlocutory decision in August 2018. An additional Rp 500 million was allegedly to be paid in bribes for the final ruling on Thursday.

(IAN/APA/REK)