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)