KPK search Supreme Court again over bribery case
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) for a second time searched a number of offices at the Supreme Court on Tuesday in a bid to find more evidence in a high-profile bribery case allegedly involving the court's justices.
KPK investigators searched the office of the head of the Supreme Court's subdirectorate of case appeals and reviews Zarof Richard and confiscated copies of court documents relating to the appeal of businessman Probosutedjo.
Lauris Sauvanna Ramly, a staffer at the Supreme Court, was quoted by news portal detik.com as saying that although some Court officials were upset by the searches, they could do nothing as the justices had agreed to cooperate with the KPK in its investigation.
The KPK last week searched the offices of three Supreme Court justices, including the room of Chief Justice Bagir Manan who led the panel of justices handling the Probosutedjo appeal case. The investigators confiscated various documents related to the appeal including copies of the legal opinions of the three justices relating to the matter.
Probosutedjo, who is the half-brother of former president Soeharto, claimed that he had distributed Rp 16 billion ($1.6 million) to judges at the district court, high court and Supreme Court in a bid to be acquitted of corruption. The funds, Rp 6 billion of which was reportedly allocated for Supreme Court judges, were allegedly distributed through his lawyers and court officials.
The Central Jakarta District Court in 2003 sentenced Probosutedjo to four years in jail for embezzling reforestation funds, but the Jakarta High Court later cut the sentence to two years. The bribery case came to the surface after Probosutedjo's lawyer handling the appeal, Harini Wijoso, was caught red-handed by KPK investigators earlier this month giving money to Supreme Court officials to bribe justices.
The judges claim they did not accept any bribes from Probosutedjo.
Meanwhile, four Supreme Court justices were questioned on Tuesday in relation to the bribery case. Like the two high court judges who were previously grilled by the Supreme Court, Suparno also insisted that he had never accepted any bribe from Probosutedjo's lawyers. The lawyers handling the Probosutedjo case at the high court on Monday denied claims made by the businessman that they had arranged the transfer of money for the judges.
"Suparno did not personally know Probosutedjo or his lawyer. He claimed that he had never received any money from Probosutedjo," Supreme Court Justice Djoko Sarwoko said after the questioning.