House selects six new ad hoc appeal judges

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The House of Representatives' Commission II for home and legal affairs selected on Wednesday six judges -- out of 16 candidates -- to handle human rights appeal cases at the Supreme Court (MA).

Some of the six figures are those who failed in the House's screenings for the position of supreme court justices last year and to be members of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) in July.

The six judges are lecturers Sumaryo Suryokusumo, Masyur Effendi and Ronald Zelfianus Titahelu, researcher Eddy Djunaedi Karnasudirja and retired judges Sakir Ardiwinata and Boestomi.

The House is set to endorse the selected judges at a plenary meeting on Friday.

After that, the President will officially install them as ad hoc judges.

The selection process for the ad hoc judges at the House started on June 19 when the Supreme Court nominated 13 candidates to the House.

The House then invited three at-large lay candidates to apply bringing the total to 16.

However, after the assessment into their administrative requirements, three seemingly excellent candidates -- former supreme justice Adi Andojo Soetjipto, criminal law expert Loebby Loeqman and Sr. Comr. (ret.) Moenir -- were inexplicably disqualified.

To make things worse, three more figures -- constitutional law expert Sri Soemantri, former justice minister Muladi and Edwin Simanjuntak -- withdrew from the candidacy.

The disqualification and the withdrawals left the number of candidates to 10, all of whom partook in the selection process on Wednesday.

Each of the candidates presented their thoughts before the legislators, in a session headed by Agustin Teras Narang, chairman of Commission II.

After hearing the candidates' presentations, the 47 legislators attending the session then voted for the candidates. Each legislator were allowed four to six names.

Then, the Commission took the six candidates who got the most votes.

Two candidates, M.S Lumme and Poltak Sahattua Simanjuntak, who won 23 and 18 votes respectively were not taken, and the other two candidates, Lawan Bahtera Tarigan and Boediman Moenadjad did not receive any votes. These two persons are laymen who nominated themselves.

Selected ad hoc judges: (1) Sumaryo Suryokusumo (failed Komnas HAM test), lecturer at a police school, 46 votes, (2) Eddy Djunaedi Karnasudirja (failed to become supreme justice), researcher at MA, 45 votes, (3) A. Masyur Effendi, lecturer at a banking school, 43 votes, (4) Ronald Zelfianus Titahelu, lecturer at Sam Ratulangi University, Manado, North Sulawesi, 38 votes, (5) Sakir Ardiwinata (failed to become supreme justice), retired judge, 31 votes, (6) T. Boestomi, retired judge, 26 votes.