Judges grilled over controversial Manulife ruling
Judges grilled over controversial Manulife ruling
Novan Iman Santosa and Yogita Tahilramani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Apparently bowing to pressure from Canada, the Jakarta High Court
grilled three Commercial Court judges on Tuesday in connection
with suspicions that they had allegedly accepted bribes to
declare PT Asuransi Jiwa Manulife Indonesia (AJMI) bankrupt.
Not only that, the three judges -- Tjahyono, CH. Kristi
Purnamiwulan and Hasan Basri -- will also be questioned by a team
from the Inspectorate-General of the Ministry of Justice and
Human Rights.
The ministry has even released the three judges from their
daily duty of presiding over cases while they await completion of
the investigation.
Chief of the Central Jakarta District Court and the Commercial
Court Muhammad Saleh said the three judges were questioned on
Tuesday by a three-member team of High Court judges, presided
over by Jakarta High Court chief Ridwan Nasution.
"I was ordered to ensure the judges showed up for questioning.
I did that," Saleh told The Jakarta Post, adding that the judges
were interrogated throughout Tuesday afternoon.
The Jakarta High Court investigation team will report to
Supreme Court Chief Justice Bagir Manan.
Judges are under the supervision of the Supreme Court, but
administrative matters are dealt with by the Ministry of Justice
and Human Rights.
The ministry has already started an investigation into the
three judges.
Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra said
the investigation by ministry Inspector-General Koesnan
Reksodirdjo began on Monday with the questioning of all the
witnesses.
The team has been given a maximum of 10 working days from
Monday to complete its investigation and hand over the results to
Yusril.
Yusril said that the investigation would initially examine
possible disciplinary violations by the judges.
"We do not want to investigate the substance of the trial as
that falls under the Supreme Court's jurisdiction," Yusril said.
The three Commercial Court judges ruled on June 13 that
Manulife was bankrupt, after a receiver of now-defunct PT
Dharmala Sakti Sejahtera, the local partner of Manulife, had
filed a bankruptcy petition over unpaid dividend in 1999.
The ruling became controversial as Manulife is -- according to
the Ministry of Finance -- a solvent company, and the
shareholders had not authorized any dividend payment during that
period.
The decision prompted a diplomatic row between Indonesia and
Canada, with the latter pressuring the former to intervene.
Minister Yusril denied that the investigation was a result of
persistent pressure from the Canadian government.
He said the investigation was necessary to ensure the
integrity of the country's court system.
Supreme Court secretary-general Gunanto Suryono said that the
three judges, like other judges at the Commercial Court, had
satisfied the legal and educational criteria for becoming
Commercial Court judges before being appointed to the position.
"Sometimes, there are judges who do foolish things. There are
bad eggs in the basket ... which spoil the whole basket. This is
why an investigation is necessary," Gunanto told the Post.