Bagir plans review of Supreme Court law

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)