Supreme Court blasted over reversal<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The supreme court came under criticism yesterday
\nfor reversing its own earlier decision to award an Irianese man
\nRp 18.6 billion (about US$8.5 million) in compensation in a land
\ndispute with the local government.<\/p>\n
The Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) said that the
\nsupreme court had again put its credibility in doubt because its
\nreversal of the decision had no legal basis.<\/p>\n
\"The reversal of the decision shows that the Supreme Court is
\nunable to make consistent decisions because, apparently, the
\njudges do not have a common reference,\" YLBHI executive director
\nMulyana W. Kusumah said in a statement made available to The
\nJakarta Post yesterday.<\/p>\n
Chief Justice Soerjono has reportedly sent a letter to the
\ndistrict court of Jayapura, Irian Jaya, to the effect that the
\nsupreme court's verdict in favor of plaintiff Hanoch Hebe Ohee
\ncannot be executed.<\/p>\n
Soerjono said in the letter, dated April 5, 1995, that the
\ndefendant (the Irian Jaya provincial government) was not a public
\nlegal body \"which has its own property.\"<\/p>\n
The dispute over the 62 hectare plot of land, located about 30
\nkilometers from the Sentani Airport, began in 1984 when Ohee
\nsought to regain the property controlled by the Irian government.<\/p>\n
Ohee, who has spent no less than Rp 1 billion ($450,000) in
\nthe 10 year legal wrangle, claims that the property is communal
\nland belonging to his clan since the 1940s.<\/p>\n
He won the legal battle at the district court level in July
\n1985. After losing an appeal to the high court, the provincial
\ngovernment appealed to the supreme court in 1988 and lost again.<\/p>\n
Irian Jaya governor Jacob Pattipi initially asserted his
\nreadiness to pay for the land. But last week he said that the
\ngovernment had only Rp 8 billion on hand and changed his mind.<\/p>\n
A similar controversy occurred last year when the supreme
\ncourt reversed its decision in favor of farmers in Kedungombo,
\nCentral Java, who had sought more than Rp 2 billion in
\ncompensation for the appropriation of their land by the
\ngovernment for a dam project.<\/p>\n
Mulyana said that the argument that the Irian Jaya government
\nwas not a public legal entity that owns property was flimsy
\nbecause, he said, there was no law on the matter.<\/p>\n
Mulyana said that Soerjono's letter annulling the verdict in
\nfavor of Ohee was baseless because the chief justice had no
\nauthority to revoke the supreme court decision.<\/p>\n
\"The Chief Justice's letter also ignores legal procedure and
\ndisrespects substantive legal values which recognize people's
\nsocial rights,\" he said. (pan)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/supreme-court-blasted-over-reversal-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}