Corrupt legal system selective with corruptors

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In the last few days, seemingly good news in the drive against corruption came to the fore.

There was the detention of graft suspect and House of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tandjung, the conviction of Bank Indonesia Governor Sjahril Sabirin in a graft case and the detention of graft suspect and businessman Hashim Djojohadikusumo.

However, questions abound: Why did it take so long to detain Akbar? Why does Sjahril remain free after the Central Jakarta District Court declared him guilty and sentenced him to three years in prison? Why only Sjahril, when he was merely a bit player in the Bank Bali scandal? And why Hashim when there are so many other "dirty" tycoons living free without legal interference?

According to lawyers Nursyahbani Katjasungkana and Trimedya Panjaitan, a corrupt legal system allowed it to happen.

At play are judges and prosecutors, who have all the discretion and rights to detain suspects or send the convicted to jail.

Nursyahbani gave a classic example of the corrupt legal system at work with the system's failure to immediately send former president Soeharto's youngest son, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, to jail after the Supreme Court sentenced him to 18 months in prison term in connection to a land swap deal in 2000.

"So much time was wasted in putting the man in jail after sentencing until he finally ran off and was lost for a year," Nursyahbani said on Friday.

In the case of Sjahril, the judges, instead of sending him to prison following conviction, stipulated that the court could not send him directly to jail because he was free when the verdict was read.

Both Nursyahbani and Trimedya believe that the judges in Sjahril's case made a genuine mistake.

They have ruled out the involvement of money in such a decision, but noted that such a mistake could have an adverse impact on the public.

"Due to this mistake, the central bank is now governed by a convict," Trimedya said.

"The court's judges should have stated that this man, sentenced to a three-year jail term, should be sent to jail directly."

Sjahril was sentenced to three years in jail for his role in the Rp 904 billion (US$90.4 million) Bank Bali scandal.

What about Akbar's belated detention? Trimedya believed that political bargaining was behind it.

"State prosecutors are rendered unable to detain suspects either due to the intervention of political interests or failure of further negotiations, as in the Akbar Tandjung case," Trimedya said.

"Prosecutors had evidence against Akbar in the Bulog case long before, but they were just waiting for permission to detain him. Once they received permission -- I won't say who gave the permission -- Akbar was detained," he added.

Prosecutors finally detained Golkar leader Akbar Tandjung on March 7 as a suspect in a Rp 40 billion graft scandal involving the State Logistics Agency (Bulog).

His case will be heard at the Central Jakarta District Court in the coming weeks.

As for Hashim, Trimedya suspects that money is at play.

"Just see the Hashim Djohohadikusumo case. Everybody knows how rich he is. Initially, prosecutors spent no time bothering to detain him. But all of a sudden, they detained him," he said.

Hashim, former chief commissioner of the now defunct Bank Industri, has been detained as a suspect in the violation of the legal bank lending limit.

He began his 20 days in detention on Wednesday at Salemba Penitentiary, pending trial.

While the government has been successful in detaining Hashim, it apparently failed to nab Hendra Rahardja, a suspect in the multimillion dollar Bank Indonesia liquidity support (BLBI) to his bank, Bank Harapan Santosa (BHS), and Sjamsul Nursalim, a suspect in another BLBI case as well as other tycoons suspected of plundering state assets.

Hendra is reportedly in Australia, while his case is being heard at the Central Jakarta District Court. Sjamsul is also overseas, reportedly in Singapore for "medical treatment".

Trimedya suggested that the government prioritize corruption cases involving prominent tycoons if it wants to win the hearts of the people.