Constitutional Court Nominee Inosentius Reportedly Reassigned to Danantara

House Commission III member from the Golkar faction, Benny Utama, has disclosed the story behind Inosentius Samsul’s withdrawal as a Constitutional Court justice nominee. Benny stated that Inosentius Samsul was assigned a position at the Daya Anagata Nusantara Investment Management Agency, known as BPI Danantara.

The revelation emerged during a hearing between House Commission III and the Constitutional Court Honour Council (MKMK) regarding a complaint against constitutional justice Adies Kadir, held at the parliamentary complex in Senayan, Jakarta, on Wednesday (18 February).

Inosentius Samsul had previously been selected by House Commission III as a candidate to replace Constitutional Court Justice Arief Hidayat, who was approaching retirement. However, his candidacy was cancelled after he received a different assignment. Benny then explained the process.

“Speaking of the process, the Chairman earlier explained how we recruited Mr Inosentius Samsul from the beginning, and then on 21 January he informed us that he had received an assignment from the government for another position,” Benny said during the hearing.

Benny said he had heard that Inosentius received an assignment at Danantara. In his view, Inosentius was entitled to decide which position to accept.

“If I’m not mistaken, the last I heard was at Danantara — I heard he was assigned there. Essentially, he also has the prerogative right to decide for himself whether he wants to serve at the Constitutional Court or in another position offered to him. He chose the other option,” he said.

Following that notification, Benny continued, House Commission III sought a replacement for Inosentius. Adies Kadir was subsequently selected as the replacement, though still through processes governed by legislation.

“Then on 3 February, Mr Arief Hidayat entered retirement. The timeframe was only 10 days for us to recruit a replacement for Mr Arief Hidayat — that was the situation facing the House at that time. We then followed the proper procedures. As the Chairman has already explained, we conducted an open recruitment process, which was approved by all factions in House Commission III at that time,” he said.