House legislators name 14 new Supreme Court justices

Kurniawan Hari and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta

The House of Representatives (DPR) picked 14 Supreme Court justices on Friday after a series of hearings of 43 eligible candidates over the past four days.

The new justices, selected by House Commission II for home and legal affairs, will be assigned to the 39-strong Supreme Court, which has a backlog of 16,000 cases.

"The selected justices are the best among the best," House Commission II deputy chairman Hamdan Zoelva said shortly after the vote counting here.

Commission II chairman Agustin Teras Narang, said the commission had invited the public to provide information on the track records of the candidates, but the response had been lukewarm.

The House is slated to endorse the 14 names at a plenary meeting on Monday, Agustin said.

Earlier, the Indonesian Institute for Independent Judiciary (Leip) research head Dian Rositawati, said that the recruitment of Supreme Court justices should be delayed, pending the establishment of a Judicial Commission.

Unfortunately, the bill on the formation of the Judicial Commission is still being deliberated by the House.

Separately, the Supreme Court started on Friday a three-day screening process of candidates for the ad-hoc corruption tribunal, which is due to be installed later this year.

Five candidates for the appeal court were grilled by the selection team. Another 15 candidates will be screened this weekend.

Only 11 team members, most of whom are Supreme Court justices and officials, were present during the hearing. The candidates are Jamiara Sidabutar, As'adi Al Ma'ruf, Sudiro, Parlindungan Sinaga, and Abdurrahman Hasan.

List of new Supreme Court justices:

No. Name Age Background Score

1. Harifin A. Tumpa 62 Jakarta High Court 43

2. Moegihardjo 62 Supreme Court 41

3. Gunanto Suryono 62 Supreme Court 40

4. Muhammad Taufik 61 Palembang High Court 36

5. R. Imam Harjadi 62 Tanjung Karang High Court 34

6. Abbas Said 61 Pekanbaru High Court 33

7. Andar Purba 63 Supreme Court 32

8. Djoko Sarwoko 62 Semarang High Court 31

9. I Made Tara 61 Denpasar High Court 31

10. Atja Sondjaja 62 Pontianak High Court 29

11. Susanti Adi Nugroho 63 Supreme Court 26

12. Bahaudin Qaudry 63 Padang High Court 24

13. Imam Soebechi 58 Supreme Court 39*

14. Marina Sidabutar 61 Medan Administrative Court 28*

(*) Justices assigned to handle State Administrative Court affairs.