Judge to be questioned over 'unfair decision'

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Chief of the Central Jakarta District Court will question judge Amiruddin Zakaria following the complaint from the Central Jakarta Prosecutors' Office chief, who has accused him of being unfair in the handling of a corruption case.

Court chief Mohammad Saleh told reporters in his office on Monday that he would listen to both Amiruddin and the prosecutor who first lodged the complaint.

Amiruddin is the presiding judge who is trying the now defunct Bank Umum Nasional (BUN) director Leonard Tanubrata and vice commissioner Kaharudin Ongko who are charged with misusing Rp 6.7 trillion (US$670 million) of Bank Indonesia's emergency loans disbursed between November 1997 and April 1998.

Based on prosecutor Arnold Angkouw's complaint, the Central Jakarta Prosecutors' Office filed a request to the court, asking for the replacement of Amiruddin for allegedly having "direct or indirect interests" in the case.

"I've just received the request from the Central Jakarta Prosecutors' Office at 2:30 p.m today, but I will issue the decision soon," Saleh said.

Amiruddin is also the presiding judge who is handling the murder case of Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra and the corruption case of House of Representatives' Speaker Akbar Tandjung.

It rarely happens here that prosecutors ask for the replacement of a judge who is handling a case.

The last case occurred last year in Bandung, West Java, when prosecutor AK Basari Masyarif requested the West Java High Court to replace presiding judge Tarbin for allegedly "having interests" in the corruption case of former West Java deputy governor Ukman Sutaryan.

The high court rejected the request, but several weeks later, judge Tarbin resigned from his post as the presiding judge.

In Amiruddin's case, it all began on May 7 when he rejected to hear an expert witness presented by Arnold following an objection from the defendants' lawyers.

The lawyers claimed that the expert witness, Oei Hoei Tiong, a legal expert from Bank Indonesia, was also implicated in the case.

Arnold insisted to present Oei, saying that the Criminal Code Procedure stipulates that the court must present all witnesses whose testimony were recorded in the dossiers.

However, Amiruddin refused, arguing that a Supreme Court circular No 2/1985 authorizes the panel of judges to decide which witnesses could be produced in the courtroom.

Amiruddin adjourned the hearing for an indefinite time after Arnold insisted to file a request to replace the judges.

Last year, Amiruddin ordered the pending of the detention of Leonard and Kaharudin on Aug. 10, shortly after prosecutors handed over the case to the court.

Last month, he also released Akbar from detention.