House sepaker's trial to start on March 25, court announces
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
In contrast to the usual snail's pace of the law, the Central Jakarta District Court announced on Monday that it would begin the trial of House Speaker Akbar Tandjung on March 25 for allegedly misusing Rp 40 billion (US$4 million) in State Logistics Agency (Bulog) funds.
Akbar will be tried along with two other defendants, Winfried Simatupang, an aid contractor, and Dadang Sukandar, chairman of the Raudlatul Jannah Foundation, court spokesman Andi Samsan Nganro said.
"They will be tried together as the charges are related to each other," he said.
The court set up a panel of judges, consisting of Judge Andi and I Ketut Gede and Presiding Judge Amiruddin Zakaria, only a couple of hours after the Jakarta Prosecutors' Office handed over the case files on Thursday.
The Jakarta Prosecutors' Office submitted the files to the court three hours after it received them from the Attorney General's Office. Usually, it takes between three days and a week before files on a defendant are submitted to the court.
In most cases, the court president then selects a panel of judges to hear the case between three days and one week after the court has received the files. The panel of judges then sets a date for the trial, and usually it takes about a week for them to prepare themselves before the first hearing.
Many have alleged that the process in Akbar's case has been accelerated for political reasons in an attempt to show the public that law enforcers are really serious in handling the case, so that the House of Representatives does not need to establish a special investigative committee.
However, court president Subardi rejected the allegation.
"There's no politics involved in this case. This is about corruption," he said without elaborating.
The panel of judges in the Akbar case will also hear the murder charges against the youngest son of former president Soeharto, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, on Wednesday.
"It's not a big deal as the schedules for both cases are different," said Andi, who has also been appointed as an ad hoc human rights tribunal judge.
The court has ordered the prosecutors to continue the detention of the defendants as the judges have yet to receive any request for bail from the defendants' lawyers.
One of Akbar's lawyers, Ruhut Sitompul, said they were still discussing the issue.
Akbar claimed that he gave the Bulog funds to Dadang for humanitarian aid purposes. Dadang in turn claims he handed the funds over to Winfried. Winfried had earlier claimed he had spent the money on buying food aid for the poor. But later, he changed his tune, saying that he had not spent the money at all. He then returned it to prosecutors.
The Rp 40 billion is believed by many to have been channeled to the Golkar Party to finance its 1999 election campaign. Golkar executive Syamsul Muarif, who is also the state minister for communications and information, said the funds had been shared with all of the 48 parties contesting the election, except for the People's Democratic Party.
Akbar's case is part of a Rp 54.6 billion corruption case involving former Bulog chief Rahardi Ramelan as the prime suspect. Rahardi will go on trial on Tuesday in the South Jakarta District Court.