Adi Andjojo told to be quiet over bribery case
Adi Andjojo told to be quiet over bribery case
JAKARTA (JP): Deputy Chief Justice for General Crimes Adi
Andojo Soetjipto has been instructed to stop talking to the press
about allegations that a group of Supreme Court judges accepted
Rp 1.4 billion (US$600,000) to acquit a defendant last July.
In spite of the written order from Chief Justice Soerjono, Adi
Andojo went to reporters yesterday to announce that he had been
reprimanded for calling his earlier press conferences.
"I just received a memo from the chief justice today asking me
to avoid giving press conferences about the alleged collusion in
the Supreme Court," Adi said.
In the letter Soerjono told Adi that the only person
authorized to speak with the press was the Supreme Court
secretary-general, Toton Suprapto.
"Soerjono told me (the request) was needed for the sake of
coordinating the Supreme Court's policy making," he said.
Adi said he would comply with the request.
The charges of collusion became known to the public when a
local magazine revealed a confidential letter written by Adi, who
asked the Central Jakarta Prosecutor's Office to review a
document fraud case handled last year by the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court had acquitted the defendant in the case, Ram
Gulumal, of all charges of falsifying land documents.
Justice Adi has since given the Prosecutor's Office more
evidence to allow it to file for a review.
Adi added that he would be questioned by the Supreme Court's
internal supervision team today.
"I received a request from the coordinator of the supervision
team yesterday afternoon asking me to testify before the team
members," he said.
The court-appointed team has been criticized over the last few
days for its slow investigation of the case.
The team, led by the deputy chief justice for military
tribunals, Sarwata, consists of T.H. Ketut Suraputra, the deputy
chief justice for state administrative courts as well as senior
judges German Hoediarto, Soetarjo and M. Husni.
Adi called on his Supreme Court colleagues to be "independent"
and "transparent", and to disclose the results of their
investigation.
"It will be a bad precedent if they fail to do so," he added.
(imn)