Court chief ill, Bank Bali appeal hearing delayed

Court chief ill, Bank Bali appeal hearing delayed

JAKARTA (JP): An official at the Jakarta High Court disclosed
on Monday that the Court had yet to appoint a panel of judges and
set a date for the initial hearing over the South Jakarta
District Court's decision to drop the indictment against Djoko S.
Tjandra, the main suspect in the high profile Bank Bali scandal.

Documents of the appeal case, including the district court's
verdict, the prosecutor's indictment and the appeal statement
were officially submitted by the South Jakarta District Court
officials in place of the prosecutor at the Attorney General's
Office last Tuesday.

"We have received documents of the prosecutor's appeal. We're
waiting for our chairman, Gde Soedharta, to recover from his
illness before we can name the judges and set the initial hearing
date," deputy chairman of the high court M.S. Lumme told The
Jakarta Post at his office here.

Lumme did not elaborate on the type of illness Gde Soedharta
was suffering from.

"It's a doctor's secret. But, apparently he is suffering from
a severe illness, as he has been absent since last week," said
Lumme.

He said a panel of three judges would have to cope with a
limited time to examine the case.

"We must accelerate the process of examining the prosecutor's
appeal, since we only have 14 days," he said.

Court tradition says the high court will have 14 days to
examine the district court's verdict, after the high court
receives the appeal.

He said the three judges would discuss the verdict.

"Within 14 days, the court will decide whether to uphold or
overrule the district court's ruling. If the ruling is overruled,
the district court will have to continue to hear the case," he
said.

He, however, insisted that he did not have the authority to
take the initiative to accelerate the establishment of a panel of
judges, despite the limited time they had.

"The chairman has yet to delegate the authority to form the
panel of judges to me," he said.

The Bank Bali scandal centers around the dubious transfer of
Rp 546 billion (US$78 million) to PT Era Giat Prima as commission
for services in assisting the bank to recoup Rp 904 billion in
interbank loans.

In the indictment, the prosecutor accused Djoko of
"approaching" several top government figures to pave the way for
the disbursement of the funds from the Indonesian Bank
Restructuring Agency (IBRA).

Presiding judge R. Soenarto dropped the indictment against
Djoko in a pretrial hearing in early March due to a court
technicality, saying that the judges did not have the authority
to try the case since it was not a criminal one. (asa/09)