Govt readies anticorruption court

Govt readies anticorruption court

JAKARTA: The government has begun preparations for the
establishment of the long-awaited special court to hear
corruption cases, as mandated by Law No. 30, 2002 on Corruption
Eradication Commission (KPTKP).

Supreme Court Judge Paulus E. Lotulung told reporters on
Wednesday that the government had issued an instruction on the
establishment of a steering committee to develop a blue-print for
the court's establishment on March 19, 2004.

"We have set a team to coordinate its establishment, which is
led by Mardjono Reksodiputro," said Paulus, who heads the
steering committee and is a professor with the University of
Indonesia school of law.

Supreme Court Chief Bagir Manan expected the court to be
established by the end of the year.

Bagir said the Supreme Court would face difficulties in
recruiting judges to try corruption cases.

"Based on our experience in recruiting ad hoc judges for the
human rights tribunal, it will not be as easy as we think," he
said.

Law No. 30/2002 stipulates that a corruption case shall be
heard by a panel of five judges, three of whom are non-career
judges.

"If we recruit the judges from universities, they
(universities) would lack lecturers. On the other hand, I don't
think lawyers are willing to fill the posts as the salary is not
as good as their current salary as lawyers," Bagir added. --JP