I followed procedure: Adi Andojo

JAKARTA (JP): Deputy Chief Justice Adi Andojo Soetjipto yesterday denied accusations that he violated court procedures when he asked that a Supreme Court decision be reviewed and that a group of senior judges be investigated for taking a bribe of Rp 1.4 billion (US$600,000).

"I have followed all the prevailing procedures," Adi told journalists upon arriving at his residence from a month-long visit to the U.S.

Adi was commenting on a recent case involving an Indian national who allegedly bribed senior judges to acquit him of fraud charges.

Adi issued a letter to the Central Jakarta Prosecutor's Office on Dec. 5, 1995, asking it to file for a review of the decision by the Supreme Court, which acquitted Ram Gulumal of all charges of unlawful land procurement for the construction of the Gandhi Memorial International School in Ancol, North Jakarta.

Chief Soerjono has questioned the legal basis of Adi's move. "Adi did not inform me or Vice Chief Justice Muhammad Djaelani, as his superiors, before sending the letter," he said last week.

Soerjono also said Adi did not have the authority to ask the prosecutor's office to file a review as only the office itself has the authority to initiate a court review.

Adi insisted yesterday that he has the authority to take action in general crime affairs.

"I have issued hundreds of Supreme Court decrees on criminal cases on my own since the period of former Chief Justice Ali Said (between 1982 and 1992)," he said.

"And I have never sent copies of the decrees which I signed. Ali Said gave me the full authority to issue the decrees, he said, adding that he still has the same authority.

The controversy erupted when several Supreme Court judges in Group D, presided over by Samsoedin Aboebakar, ruled last July that the charges against Gulumal for falsifying documents could not be proven.

The alleged improprieties were revealed in 1991.

Gulumal was sentenced by the Central Jakarta District Court in 1993 to one year in prison for falsifying documents to acquire the land and permits necessary for establishing the new school.

The verdict was upheld by the Jakarta High Court on appeal but the sentence reduced to eight months.

Adi said yesterday that the decision to ask the Prosecutor's Office to file for a review of the Supreme Court's decision was not just his idea.

"It was decided during one of the Supreme Court's leadership meetings in the beginning of December last year," he said.

His request that the Supreme Court decision be delayed also was not his own doing, he said.

"Vice Chief Justice Muhammad Djaelani asked me to follow up on a reply from the Central Jakarta Prosecutor's Office. The office's reply came only two weeks after my first letter," he said.

Adi said the civil case was initially of no interest to him until the judges in group D acquitted Gulumal of all charges in a brief trial in July 1995.

It was registered at the bottom of the list of cases to be tried in the general crimes department, he recounted.

"There was a pack of cases which should have been tried before the Gandhi Memorial International School case," he said.

He said that he was not informed of the decision to give the case to Group D.

"As a deputy chief justice, I have the authority to distribute all incoming cases to the groups of senior judges," Adi said. "The Gandhi School case was supposed to have been handled by Group H, but, without my knowledge, it was later given to group D, which was chaired by Samsoedin Aboebakar."

He said that he does not wish to tarnish the Supreme Court's image nor that of the Indonesian judicial system.

"My obsession is to uncover corrupt practices in the Supreme Court," he said. He added that collusion is rampant and has sullied the image of the Supreme Court.

"The condition has gotten so bad that I think an independent team should be set up to investigate, and I have proposed that the office of the vice president establish such a team," Adi said. (imn)