HAPI grills lawyers Elza in ethics hearing

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra's lawyer Elza Syarief, who has been accused of paying witnesses to lie in court, was brought before a lawyers' ethics committee on Friday, in what appeared to be a smoke screen.

The Indonesia Advocates and Lawyers Association's (HAPI) ethics committee is questioning Elza over the case, which involve two witnesses in Tommy's court case.

The ethics hearing took place in the ballroom of the Sahid Jaya Hotel in Central Jakarta, which was turned into a "courtroom" with the five-member HAPI ethics committee acting as a panel of judges, complete with robes.

This "panel of judges" issued two recommendations. The first was that the Jakarta Police not summon Elza as either a witness or a suspect in the bribery case while she was still being questioned by the ethics committee.

The second recommendation was that Elza not represent Tommy until her hearing, which is scheduled to last three days, was completed.

Elza, however, refused this second recommendation, saying that Tommy psychologically depended on her.

The HAPI ethics committee was established on Wednesday, with Yan Apul Girsang as the chairman. Yan Apul is also chairman of HAPI's disciplinary council.

Yan Apul admitted that the association had no set procedures to conduct the hearing. Therefore, it would use the Indonesian Bar Association's procedural code, with some modifications.

Yan Apul was once tried for giving false information before a notary public in Surabaya. However, the court acquitted him from any charges last year.

Elza is accused of having paid Rahmat Hidayat and Tatang Somantri to withdraw statements they had made to the police.

The two, who are in police detention, admitted that Elza gave them each Rp 2 million before they testified in court. Elza, however, says that she gave Rahmat Rp 1 million to buy decent clothes to attend the hearing on April 10.

Separately, spokesman of the Jakarta Police Headquarters Sr. Comr. Anton Bachrul Alam said Elza would be summoned as a suspect for questioning on Monday.

HAPI's ethics hearing will not affect the questioning, he said.

Lawyer Frans Hendra Winarta, who attended the hearing as an expert witness, criticized the hearing, which adopted the formation of a criminal court.

"It's an ethics hearing, not a criminal hearing. They must focus on ethics violations only. Criminal violations can only be tried in court," he told The Jakarta Post after the hearing.

According to Frans, witnesses should not be confronted directly with the accused as "the judges" would examine the facts with the association's ethics code.

If the judges find the accused guilty, they must suspend their association membership.

"It has nothing to do with the criminal charge by the police. An ethics hearing can only produce an ethics decision, to which its members are bound," said Frans.

But he said he did not believe that the hearing would be effective in upholding ethics among the law profession, which is notorious for bribery.