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.