House selects six new ad hoc appeal judges

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.