Group of young lawyers decry chief justice
Group of young lawyers decry chief justice
JAKARTA (JP): Chief Justice Soerjono came under further criticism yesterday for his letter declaring unenforceable a Supreme Court ruling in a land dispute in Irian Jaya. This latest objection came from a group of young lawyers who call themselves the Indonesian Law Society.
Some 15 members of the society visited the Supreme Court to register their protest, but after failing to meet with the chief justice, they moved to the nearby office of the National Commission on Human Rights, where they received a hearing.
"We regret Chief Justice Soerjono's decision to send the letter, reversing a Supreme Court judgment, which is legally final," Waskito, who led the group of young lawyers to the human rights commission.
He told B.N. Marbun, a member of the commission, that Soerjono's decision was groundless and unjust.
The Chief Justice should uphold and respect the supremacy of law, as well as the independence and autonomy of judicial institutions, said the lawyer from the Jakarta branch of the Legal Aid Institute.
Chief Justice Soerjono has been widely criticized for sending a "personal" letter intervening in the execution of a Supreme Court ruling in a land dispute between the provincial government of Irian Jaya and an Irian Jaya resident.
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Hanoch Hebe Ohee, the resident, and ordered the Irian Jaya governor and the Irian Jaya office of the Directorate of Agriculture, the Directorate of Commercial Plantations, the Directorate of Forestry, the Directorate of Animal Husbandry, and the Directorate of Fisheries to pay Rp 18.6 billion ($8.5 million) for land appropriated from the Ongge and Hanoch keret (sub-clans), which Ohee represented in his suit.
But Soerjono subsequently sent a letter to the Irian Jaya district court in which he said that the defendant were not public legal bodies "which have their own property" and therefore the Supreme Court verdict in favor of the plaintiff could not be executed.
The dispute over the 62 hectare plot of land, located about 30 kilometers from the Sentani Airport, began in 1984 when Ohee sought to regain the property, controlled by the Irian Jaya government.
Communal land
Ohee, who has spent no less than Rp 1 billion ($450,000) on the 10 year legal wrangle, says the property is communal land belonging to his clan since the 1940s.
Ohee won the legal battle at the district court level in July 1985. After losing an appeal to the high court, the provincial government appealed to the Supreme Court in 1988 and lost again.
Waskito praised the human rights commission for asking Soerjono to revoke his letter.
Marbun said the commission would send a team to Irian Jaya to collect data and information on the prolonged land dispute.
Although the sub-clans have a right to the communal land under Indonesian land law, the chief justice's letter has nullified their right to the land, he said.
At the Supreme Court, the delegation of young lawyers were met by the court's secretary general Toton Suprapto.
Toton repeated Soerjono's earlier statement, saying that the Supreme Court had the authority to supervise and monitor the activities of lower courts.
He suggested that the plaintiff file another lawsuit, this time against the institutions rather than the individuals. (imn)