Allegations of extortion mar selection of judges

Allegations of extortion mar selection of judges

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Reports of extortion circulated around the House of
Representatives on Wednesday just hours before legislators
conducting a fit and proper test on 63 candidates for Supreme
Court justices endorsed 18 of the nominees.

One of the candidates, Wahyu Affandi, told the press some
people who identified themselves as members of House Commission
II for legal affairs who were selecting the judges had asked him
for some money prior to his fit and prior test.

Wahyu, a lawyer, said he rejected the demand and found that he
was not among the selected candidates.

"If you want to qualify, send me the money," Wahyu quoted one
of the callers as saying.

Recently Judicial Watch reported that the test had served as a
forum to extort candidates.

Many perceive that the Indonesian courts, ranging from the
district courts to the Supreme Court, are prone to corruption.
The National Law Commission (KHN), whose duty it is to consult
with the President on legal matters, has demanded the immediate
establishment of a judicial commission which will exercise
control over judges from all levels of the judiciary. The
commission said the new body was needed due to rampant corruption
within the judiciary.

KHN blamed the endemic corruption in the judiciary on the
absence of an external monitoring institution, while an internal
controlling body was not effective and tended to protect judges
alleged of committing graft under the spirit of the corps.

It said the public could not rely on the current internal
monitoring of judges conducted by the Supreme Court to curb
corruption in the judiciary, due to the fact that it had a
backlog of 14,000 cases waiting for verdicts.

Wahyu said a man identifying himself as commission chairman
Agustin Teras Narang had demanded Rp 25 million (US$2,840) and an
air ticket from Jakarta to the Central Kalimantan capital of
Palangkaraya. The caller asked Wahyu to transfer the money to a
Bank BNI branch office in Jatinegara, East Jakarta.

A few days later, a man who identified himself as commission
member Saiful Rahman called Wahyu to ask for some money he needed
to buy a house in Cibubur, East Jakarta.

"The callers seemed to be the same person because the voice
and the phone number were identical. I checked the phone number
with the legislators and it turned out to be fictitious," Wahyu
said.

The commission's deputy chairman Hamdan Zoelva also related a
similar story. He said an unidentified person had made a phone
call and asked him if he had checked his bank account.

According to the person, Hamdan said, he had transferred some
money into Hamdan's bank account.

Hamdan emphasized that certain people had used the fit and
proper test to discredit House legislators.

Teras flatly denied allegations that the legislators had taken
advantage of the fit and proper test to extort money from
candidates.

He challenged those making the accusations to bring forth
evidence, otherwise he said, the allegations were slander.

Teras said that names of the 18 candidates would be brought to
a plenary meeting for approval.

Of the 18 candidates, 10 will be tasked to deal with the
courts, four will observe the religious courts, two will deal
with the martial courts, and two others will deal with the
Jakarta State Administrative Court.

Firmansyah Arifin, an activist with the Commission for
National Law Reform (KRHN), said that the fit and proper test was
no better than a similar process in 2000.

He said that the schedule was too tight and this meant the
commission members did not have enough time to assess the
candidates.

According to Firmansyah, legislators were not aware of the
track record of the candidates.