Court suspends judges' trials over legal technicality<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Central Jakarta District Court suspended on
\nTuesday corruption trials involving two Supreme Court justices
\ndue to legal defects in the indictments.<\/p>\n
Defendants Marnis Kahar and Supraptini Sutarto were tried
\nseparately by the same panel of judges and were defended.<\/p>\n
Marnis's case was handled by prosecutor Surung Aritonang,
\nwhile Supraptini was indicted by prosecutor Soejitno.<\/p>\n
The presiding judge, Rusdi As'ad, said that the court had to
\nsuspend the trials of both defendants as the indictments
\n\"overlapped too much and were inaccurate.\"<\/p>\n
According to the indictments, both defendants had violated
\nArticle 1, Paragraph 1c of Anticorruption Law No. 3\/1971,
\nAnticorruption Law No. 31\/1999, Article 420 of the Criminal Code
\nconcerning bribery conducted by judges and Article 418 of the
\nCriminal Code about gifts received by state officials.<\/p>\n
The court claimed that the prosecutors had mixed up the
\nanticorruption laws, which covers a specific offense and the
\nCriminal Code, which deals with general offenses.<\/p>\n
\"The indictment is questionable... ,\" Rusdi said, adding that
\nanticorruption laws carry a maximum higher sentence than that of
\nthe Criminal Code.<\/p>\n
Under anticorruption laws, if found guilty, anyone could be
\nsentenced to life compared to 20 years of imprisonment as
\nstipulated in the Criminal Code.<\/p>\n
Rusdi, however, rejected the arguments presented by the
\ndefendants' lawyers, who demanded two weeks ago that the court
\npostpone the cases until Endin Wahyudin's case is over.<\/p>\n
Endin, the witness who reported the bribery cases, is
\ncurrently facing trial on charges of slander and defamation of
\nthe justices in Central Jakarta District Court.<\/p>\n
Endin had claimed that he, a middleman, had given Rp 50
\nmillion in bribes each to Marnis and Supraptini, who were on a
\npanel of judges handling a land case. He also said that he bribed
\nM. Yahya Harahap, who presided over the panel, with Rp 96
\nmillion.<\/p>\n
Yahya, now retired from the Supreme Court, is being tried at
\nWest Jakarta District Court over the same case.<\/p>\n
Prosecutor Soejitno said after the trial was over that he
\nwould appeal to a higher court against the district court's
\ndecision.<\/p>\n
He said that the judges had different interpretations of the
\nlaws.<\/p>\n
\"It is about the rules of the game. The judges said that the
\nindictment was too much. Actually, it is impossible for us to
\nonly mention Article 1, Paragraph 1c (of the Anticorruption Law)
\nwithout mentioning other articles,\" he said. (04)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/court-suspends-judges-trials-over-legal-technicality-1447893297",
"image": ""
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