High court receives appeal on Soeharto case

JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta High Court received on Monday the appeal of the prosecutors and a counterstatement from the lawyers of former president Soeharto in response to the South Jakarta District Court's verdict which halted the trial of Soeharto's graft case due to his ailing condition.

Both the appeal and the counterstatement were delivered by a clerk, Dimyati, to the South Jakarta District Court. Both documents were received by Esther Mongan, a clerk to the Jakarta High Court.

Spokesman for the high court, M. Siahaan, said his office would not delay the deliberation of the prosecutors' appeal which requested that the high court annul the district court's ruling.

"We'll prioritize this case and soon establish a panel of judges to handle the case.

"Based on other similar cases, a decision can be expected within two to three weeks," Siahaan told journalists at his office.

He, however, said that the high court might take a longer time to try the Soeharto graft case given the uniqueness of the issue.

"The case is unique because the court had dropped the charges against Soeharto even when the indictment had yet to be read out before the trial. Such an appeal from the prosecutors has yet to have a legal basis," Siahaan said.

"I think the high court's decision will be mostly based on the judges' interpretation of the case. If any parties cannot accept the high court's ruling, they are free to file an appeal to the Supreme Court," he added.

Paragraph 3 of Article 156 of the Criminal Code Procedures (KUHAP) stipulates that the prosecutor can file an appeal against the court's verdict. Meanwhile, the trial of Soeharto had not formally begun as the indictment had yet to be read out in any of the district court's hearings.

The South Jakarta District Court, presided over by Judge Lalu Mariyun, halted the trial of Soeharto on Sept. 28, after listening to the medical opinion of an independent team of doctors, which stipulated that Soeharto was mentally and physically unfit to stand trial.

The judges then returned the indictment to the prosecutors due to the latter's incapability to present Soeharto at all three of the scheduled hearings due to his ill health.

Soeharto has been accused of mischanneling US$571 million from the state into businesses belonging to his family and cronies through seven charity foundations he chaired.

The prosecutors filed the appeal on Oct. 5 requesting that the high court annul the lower court's ruling and order it to reopen Soeharto's trial on the grounds that the judges had failed to take into account the people's sense of justice.

Meanwhile, the lawyers' counterstatement stipulated that the prosecutors' appeal was improper and unlawful.

The lawyers argued that the appeal only reflected the prosecutors' inconsistency as the latter had insisted on setting up an independent team of doctors, but in the end refused to accept the doctors' opinions.

Siahaan hinted that the Soeharto graft case would not be automatically reopened even if the panel of judges decided to annul the district court's ruling.

"The high court could possibly rule that the district court's ruling was improper and should be revoked.

"The high court will not instruct the district court to continue the trial," he said, citing that the continuance of the trial should be regulated by a different ruling. (bby)