Bagir plans review of Supreme Court law
JAKARTA (JP): Supreme Court Chief Justice Bagir Manan revealed on Wednesday his plans to amend the Supreme Court law to allow dissenting judgments to be delivered by the members of a panel of judges in handing down their verdict.
"There is a need to revise Law No. 14/1985 since it often hampers the effort to improve the Supreme Court. It, for example, does not contain a provision allowing dissenting opinions in a verdict and so discourages open examination and discussion of a case," he told visiting members of the Judicial Watch Coalition at his office.
Dissenting opinions are allowed to be delivered under Supreme Court Practice Ruling No. 1/2000 by ad hoc judges sitting in the Commercial Court.
Bagir was commenting on a recent split decision by the judges in the case of Djoko S. Tjandra, the principal defendant in the Rp 546 billion Bank Bali scandal. Justice Artidjo Alkostar found Djoko guilty and sentenced him to 20 years imprisonment plus a Rp 30 billion fine. Meanwhile, the other two judges -- Sunu Wahdi and Said Harahap -- upheld the verdict of the lower court that no corruption had been proven.
Djoko, the director of trading and investment firm PT Era Giat Prima, was accused of being involved in the disbursement of Bank Bali's interbank loans from closed Bank Dagang Nasional Indonesia, an action that allegedly resulted in Rp 904 billion in losses to the state.
Many suspects have been charged in the case, including Bank Indonesia Governor Sjahril Sabirin who is now facing trial in the Central Jakarta District Court.
Responding to the controversy over the Djoko verdict, Bagir said the ruling was subject to review, but the results would not be made public as this would be against the judicial code of ethics.
He also said that the Supreme Court law contained provisions that contradicted the court's need for young and vigorous judges, namely the ruling that limited the appointment of career judges to the Supreme Court to those who were over 58 years of age.
"This year, there will be 10 vacancies arising due to retirement. Last week, we formed a team whose task is to select candidates for judgeships for nomination to the House of Representatives in the coming six months," he said.
Lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis from Judicial Watch, one of the coalition's members, suggested that Bagir draw up a mechanism for auditing the verdict-issuing process, which he said was susceptible to bribery.
"We would also suggest that the Supreme Court synchronize the legal terms commonly used by public prosecutors, judges and the police to avoid any technicalities arising that could justify a court in rejecting evidence," he said. (bby)