Court turns down judge's bribery case

Court turns down judge's bribery case

JAKARTA (JP): The West Jakarta District Court turned down on
Tuesday the indictment of a former Supreme Court justice tried
for allegedly receiving bribes, stating that the prosecutor had
charged him under the wrong law.

Judge Suharjono said the court could not try Yahya M. Harahap
because the crime, covered by earlier legislation, was only
reported after the new, superseding law had been put into effect.

The defendant was accused of violating Anticorruption Law No.
31/1999, which replaced Anticorruption Law No.3/1971, while the
alleged crime, which took place between October and December
1998, was reported in April last year.

"We can't try him under the new law, because his case, covered
by the old law, was only reported after the new law had already
taken effect. But we can't process Yahya's case using the old law
as it has been replaced by the new one," judge Suharjono told
reporters after the trial was over.

Harahap was accused of violating Article 1, Paragraph 1c of
Anticorruption Law No.31/1999, Article 420 of the criminal code
on bribery conducted by judges and Article 418 of the Criminal
Code regarding gifts received by state officials.

Yahya, along with Supreme Court justice Supraptini Sutarto and
Marnis Kahar, was reported to the government-sanctioned
Anticorruption Team (TGPTPK) by Endin Wahyudin for allegedly
receiving Rp 196 million (US$ 1,685) in bribes.

Endin, a middleman, said he delivered Rp 96 million ($8,256)
in cash to Yahya's house, while Supraptini and Marnis received Rp
50 million ($4,311) each, in connection with a land case the
three of them were handling.

He is now being tried for defamation, following a complaint
lodged by Supraptini and Marnis, even though he had been admitted
into the witness program by the Attorney General's office.

In a court hearing in June, Yahya admitted that he had met
Endin three times at his residence but denied that he had
received any money from the latter.

Meanwhile, Supraptini and Marnis were also tried on corruption
charges separately, but the Central Jakarta District Court set
aside the case on Monday, due to legal defects in the
indictments.

Prosecutor Mukarsono, who handled Harahap's case, said he
would appeal to a higher court.

"The judge's decision will have a negative impact on the old
cases that are still being processed by the Attorney General's
Office," he told reporters after the hearing.

Meanwhile, Research Institute and Law Assistance for Court
Independency (LeIP) regretted the courts' decisions on the three
judges' cases, saying they "undermine the efforts to battle
corruption and show an inappropriate protection among judges."

"Technical weaknesses must not result in the release of a
criminal," Rifqi Assegaf the executive secretary of LeIP told The
Jakarta Post.

"The judges should be able to interpret the law in a more
logical way," he added.

But he admitted that it is important to amend the new
Anticorruption Law. The fact the new law was put into effect
without a transitional arrangement in place has caused confusion
among law practitioners in the trial of corruption cases, Rifqi
said.(06)