Trust in justice<\/p>\n
Why, asked a tearful mother last week, was the rapist and
\nmurderer of her six-year-old daughter jailed for only 20 years?
\nThe South Sulawesi district court judge, a woman, replied:
\n\"Justice had been done.\" But for the bereaved mother it did not
\nappear that this was so. Other people, too, might feel that the
\ncourt has failed to act as the last bastion of the people.<\/p>\n
Unlike other crimes, rape leaves the victim with deep, life-
\nlong scars.<\/p>\n
In spite of the many calls, notably from women's
\norganizations, for judges to get tougher on rapists, no judge has
\nyet deemed it necessary to impose the maximum penalty of 12 years
\nimprisonment, for rape, and death, for rape-murder. It is widely
\nrecognized that rape trials often encounter serious evidentiary
\ndifficulties and that gaining a confession from a rapist is no
\neasy job, but even in clear-cut cases judges have been very
\nlenient.<\/p>\n
Another widely discussed rape case was heard by the Bogor
\ndistrict court last year. A 22-year-old man stood trial on
\ncharges of raping and murdering a college student. It transpired
\nthat he had attacked her after being carried away by the bedroom
\nscenes in a locally made film he had just seen. There was a
\npublic uproar. He was sentenced to only 15 years in jail.<\/p>\n
Such lenience is doubtless one of the reasons why many public
\nprosecutors appeal to the High Courts and the Supreme Court from
\nverdicts in the lower courts. Defendants naturally take advantage
\nof their automatic right of appeal when the verdict goes against
\nthem. Chief Justice Soerjono, who took over from Purwoto S.
\nGandasubrata recently, inherited a backlog of 16,000 appeal
\ncases. On top of these, 2,000 new appeals are lodged with his
\noffice every year. This is a great burden to the 51 Supreme Court
\njudges, who have been working day and night to hear the cases.<\/p>\n
Soerjono recently complained about the habit of appealing
\nagainst verdicts in almost all cases. The reason might be that
\npeople have little faith in the judges of the courts of first
\ninstance. So they have even appealed in civil cases involving
\nridiculously small amounts of money.<\/p>\n
This problem is not found in advanced countries such as the
\nUnited States. In those countries people have come to put their
\ntrust in local and district courts and appeal only in very
\ncomplicated cases. Former Chief Justice Purwoto said recently
\nthat this was also the case in Indonesia in the 1950s.<\/p>\n
Today, however, many people seem to have been disillusioned
\nwith our courts, as President Soeharto himself confirmed
\nyesterday. And the emergence of this state of affairs has been
\nmade possible because judges are obliged to base their verdicts
\non their own conscience alone.<\/p>\n
At a recent discussion with members of the Jakarta Lawyers'
\nClub Purwoto said that in the 1950s the people still held judges
\nin very high esteem. What he did not say is: Judges' salaries
\nwere considerably higher then. Only very recently has the
\ngovernment increased their salaries. We believe that this is an
\nimportant step in ensuring judicial independence.<\/p>\n
As fellow human beings we understand how a judge trying a
\ncorruption case involving billions of rupiah must feel when he
\ncompares the amounts with his monthly salary.<\/p>\n
However, the salary increase does not, in itself, guarantee
\nfairer trials. There must be an effective system of supervision.
\nThis has, hitherto, been difficult to achieve in this country
\nbecause the supervising officers have usually been no cleaner
\nthan those they have been supervising.<\/p>\n
But in the judicial field efficacy of supervision is a must.
\nAnd judges convicted of receiving bribes deserve heavier
\npunishment than others.<\/p>\n
Finally, the Supreme Court should pay attention to the
\nquestion of judges' \"conscience\", because up to now a common
\nstandard has been lacking. Different judges have handed down
\ndifferent verdicts on the same facts. Such instances will confuse
\nseekers after justice even further.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/trust-in-justice-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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