Court monitoring body set up

YOGYAKARTA: A group of lawyers, activists and scholars established on Sunday the Indonesian Court Monitoring (ICM) watchdog, an independent organization set up to scrutinize the country's court and legal proceedings.

ICM head, lawyer Kamal Firdaus, said such a body was badly needed now reform was underway in the national justice system.

The organization was first initiated by young activists here and had been sponsored by the Association of Indonesian Advocate (Ikadin), he said.

Ikadin chief Sudjono is one of the group's honorary board members, along with other senior lawyers such as Todung Mulya Lubis, law experts Koesnadi Hardjasoemantri and Soedikno Mertokusumo from Gadjah Mada University and Bambang Widjojanto, director of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (LBH).

"Among our tasks is to review court sentences which have sparked controversy among communities," Kamal said. (44/edt)