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)