Bribery allegation hits judge candidate Teguh
Bribery allegation hits judge candidate Teguh
JAKARTA (JP): Teguh Samudra, one of 10 independent ad hoc
judges proposed by the government for the Jakarta Commercial
Court, was allegedly involved in a Rp 2 billion (US$250,000)
court bribery involving a civil dispute occurring in 1998,
according to a document.
The document alleges that Teguh -- who at the time represented
the now defunct Bank PDFCI -- paid to smooth out the Denpasar
District Court's sequestration and auction process of a hotel in
Denpasar, Bali, the document added.
"From the budgeted Rp 3 billion, we have so far used Rp 1.8
billion for the sequestration process of PT Griya Wijaya
Prestige's (GWP) assets," said the document.
The above document was part of a set of documents obtained by
The Jakarta Post.
The set of documents comprise, among other things, copies of
payment receipts which were made out to Bank PDFCI from Teguh
Samudra law firm and a copy of an internal document describing
the developments of a legal battle between GWP and PDFCI which
was signed by the bank's senior official Augustus Sani Nugroho.
He is currently serving as a senior legal official at the
Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA).
"Another Rp 200 million was used to 'take care' of a related
case in the Central Jakarta District Court," the document added.
The related document said the initial Rp 3 billion budgeted
cost broke down into four classes of expenses, namely, the
issuance of the court's demand letter, which cost PDFCI Rp 50
million, the cost of the sequestration process at Rp 600 million,
the cost of the auction process at Rp 1.56 billion and the
lawyer's fee for Teguh at Rp 790 million.
Teguh denied he attempted to bribe the court, adding that the
validity of the documents was questionable.
"I am against any kind of court bribery. The documents are
baseless and may be phony," he said on Wednesday.
Teguh Samudra was hired by PDFCI in 1998 to represent it in a
legal dispute against GWP, the owner of Sol Elite Paradiso Hotel
in Bali.
The legal dispute occurred after the latter failed to repay
its maturing debt installments to the bank.
The bank filed the suit in Denpasar District Court and the
documents said it won the suit at the appeal level at the Supreme
Court. The documents, however, do not provide details of the
results of the trials in the district and high courts.
The Supreme Court verdict instructed GWP, owned by the Karjadi
family, to repay all its defaulted debts within a certain period
of time to PDFCI or lose its pledged asset -- the Sol Elite
Paradiso Hotel -- through a liquidation process.
However, the liquidation process did not go smoothly due to
various obstacles, including an unexpected "letter" issued by the
chief justice of the Supreme Court in early 1998 which instructed
the Denpasar District Court to delay the liquidation process.
A lawyer close to the case said the country's legal system was
so bad that even parties who win cases should provide some bribes
to the court to execute the verdict.
"Court bribery is widespread in Indonesia, but a lawyer who is
involved in the practice does not qualify for an ad hoc judge
position in this reform era," he added.
The government has proposed 10 ad hoc judges to handle certain
cases which might require various areas of legal jurisprudence in
the Jakarta Commercial Court.
Other judges include prominent lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis,
senior advisor to Minister of Law Ratnawati and chairman of the
Agency for National Legal Development (BPHN) HAS Natabaya.
These independent judges will be appointed by the government
after consultations with the Supreme Court.
Minister of Law and Legislation Yusril Ihza Mahendra earlier
said a presidential decree would be issued later this month to
officially appoint the 10 judges. (udi)