Adi questioned over collusion in Supreme Court

JAKARTA (JP): The Supreme Court's internal supervision team, established to probe allegations that a group of its judges accepted Rp 1.4 billion (US$600,000) to acquit a defendant, finally interviewed whistle-blower Adi Andojo yesterday.

Adi, who is the Court's Deputy Chief Justice for General Crimes, has several times described the importance of the supervision team's questioning of him. "I'm the one who has all of the evidence needed to prove the colluding practices," he has said. "If I testify and give the evidence, then people cannot accuse me of slandering anyone."

The justice was questioned for about two hours yesterday morning.

Adi has earlier criticized the court-appointed team for its slow investigation of the case, and expressed his impatience to be summoned so that he could disclose every bit of information he had.

Adi was not available for comments yesterday. He had been instructed by Chief Justice Soerjono on Wednesday to stop feeding information to the press.

Soerjono said in a memo to Adi that the only person authorized to speak with the press about the allegations of collusion and bribery among some Supreme Court's judges was the Court's secretary-general, Toton Suprapto.

The charges of collusion became publicly known 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.

A group of Supreme Court judges, presided over by Samsoedin Aboebakar, had acquitted the defendant in the case, Ram Gulumal, of all charges of falsifying land documents.

Adi has since given the Prosecutor's Office more evidence to allow it to file for a review.

Toton Suprapto said in a press conference yesterday that Adi Andojo had testified before all members of the supervision team.

Led by Deputy Chief Justice for Military Tribunals Sarwata, the team consists of T.H. Ketut Suraputra, who is Deputy Chief Justice for State Administrative Courts and senior judges German Hoediarto, Soetarjo and M. Husni.

Toton, however, declined to provide details of the questioning. He said that the team has yet to finish its task of compiling all information and evidence.

Adi had reportedly submitted plenty of evidence to back up his allegations of collusion, including a letter from the Supreme Court's Director for General Crimes, Sujatmi Soedarmoko, admitting she was involved in rearranging the group of judges to try the case.

The case, in terms of priority, should have been given to the Group H judges. However, it was tried by Group D, Adi has said.

Adi also submitted a copy of Vice Justice Mohammad Djaelani's letter of approval for his move to reveal the alleged collusion.

Adi said he was relieved now that the long-awaited questioning finally took place.

"I can breathe easily now," Adi was quoted by his secretary Utami as saying. (imn)