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 But we can't process Yahya's case using the old law as it has been replaced by the new one," judge Suharjono told reporters after the trial was over.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)