Justice Adi wants fresh inquiry

JAKARTA (JP): Deputy Chief Justice for General Crimes Adi Andojo Soetjipto said yesterday that the team investigating the alleged collusion and bribery at the Supreme Court has not been comprehensive and objective enough in its work.

"How could it have concluded that there has been no collusion in the face of so much evidence to the contrary?" Adi told reporters in his office yesterday.

He said he was not satisfied with the team's final report.

Chief Justice Soerjono announced on Monday that the team assigned to probe Adi's allegations found no evidence to support the claim that members of the Supreme Court accepted bribes to acquit the Gandhi Memorial School principal from a document fraud case.

The report concluded that what really occurred was a "violation of procedure" in the way that the Gandhi Seva Loka vs. Ram Gulumal case was parceled out to the panel of justices in the Supreme Court.

"I want the Supreme Court's internal supervision team to launch a new investigation into the alleged collusion," Adi said.

He said that he has sent a formal request to the coordinator of the internal supervision team, Sarwata, that the team launch a fresh investigation into the case. A copy of the letter was delivered to Chief Justice Soerjono.

The alleged collusion became public in April, when a local magazine revealed Adi's confidential letter asking the Central Jakarta Prosecutor's Office to push for a retrial after the acquittal of Gulumal.

Adi backed his allegation with the fact that the Supreme Court's Director for General Crimes, Sujatmi Soedarmoko, had arranged to have the case processed by Group D of senior judges under presiding Justice Samsoedin Aboebakar.

"The case should not have been given to Group D, whose specialization is civil cases. The Gandhi Memorial School case was a criminal case," he argued.

"Group D still had a backlog of 1,644 civil cases when the Gandhi Memorial School case was tried," he added.

Furthermore, the case was of low priority, he said.

Meanwhile, members of the House of Representatives yesterday blasted Chief Justice Soerjono for what they called "a confusing announcement".

"The announcement of the final report of the investigation team is inadequate," said V.B. da Costa, a member of Commission III, which deals with legal affairs, during a hearing with Minister of Justice Oetojo Oesman yesterday.

Da Costa, a legislator from the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) faction, said there should be further investigations to follow up the report.

This time, the probe should involve the Attorney General's office and the National Police, with the intention of finding the wrongdoers, he said.

Without such a specific task, the Supreme Court will run the risk of losing the people's trust of the country's highest legal institution, he said.

Hanjojo Putro, also of Commission III, said the Supreme Court could not make noise about violations of procedures and act as if the whole affair has been resolved.

"The announcement implies that somebody has broken the rules," he said, adding that there should be legal action taken.

He suggested that the team learn from the Armed Forces' mechanism in handling violations.

"The military uses the same excuse of "violation of procedures", but it always follows it up by bringing (violators) to tribunals," he said.

He cited a number of "violations" committed by some military officers in Sampang, Madura in East Java, East Timor and Irian Jaya. In those cases, the officers were brought to court and subsequently dismissed. (imn/01)

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