Lack of interpreters stalls foreigners' trials

Lack of interpreters stalls foreigners' trials

Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang

The trials of at least 14 foreigners have stalled at the
Tangerang District Court due to a lack of funds to hire
interpreters.

Fourteen prosecutors, who were assigned to prosecute
foreigners for drug smuggling in the past two years, complained
about the absence of a special budget to hire interpreters for
the court.

As a result the prosecutors were reluctant to continue the
trial process and avoided handling new legal cases that involved
foreigners who do not speak Indonesian.

"I won't handle legal cases that involve foreigners. Due to
the absence of the special budget we prosecutors have to foot the
interpreters' fee," prosecutor Victor Silitonga, who sought a
life sentence for an Angolan caught smuggling 850 grams of heroin
from Pakistan into the country last August.

Prosecutor Hasran Harahap concurred.

"There should be special budget provided by the government to
pay for the interpreters' fees. I think it's unfair to let the
prosecutors bear the cost of hiring interpreters as their monthly
salaries range between Rp 800,000 and Rp 3 million," he told The
Jakarta Post.

The delayed cases involve foreigners facing mainly drugs-
related charges ranging in seriousness. All cases of drug
importation into Jakarta are tried at the Tangerang District
Court as the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport is located in
the Tangerang Regency.

As of today, it is still unclear who should pay interpreter
fees. But according to current procedure, prosecutors usually pay
Rp 100,000 to an interpreter for one trial session. Each case, on
average, is spread over 15 sessions, meaning interpreters are
paid about Rp 1.5 million per trial.

Separately, Judge Prim Haryadi, who sentenced a Thai woman to
death for smuggling 650 grams of heroin from Bangkok into the
country on March 14, said that the prosecutors office did provide
funds for interpreter fees.

"I wonder whether the prosecutors do not really receive
the money to pay for interpreter. But I think the prosecutors
have possibly always received the funds," he told the Post.

A reliable source, who refused to be identified, said that the
Attorney General's Office provided a fund of about Rp 5 million
for each prosecutor handling special crimes such as corruption
and drug offenses.

"But the prosecutors office in Tangerang only gets some Rp 1
million. So can you imagine how much a prosecutor receives to
handle the special cases," he said.

Since early 2000, the district court had sentenced 18
defendants involved in drug smuggling. Fourteen of the 18
convicted foreigners needed interpreters during the trials. They
include five Nepalese, four Nigerians, one Zimbabwean, one
Angolan, one Malawian, one Pakistani and a Thai.

Chief of the prosecutors office's special crime section, Ferry
Silalahi, said the unclear obligation to pay interpreter fees
centered around the weakness of Article 177 of the Criminal Code.

He said the article stipulated that should defendants or
witnesses not understand Indonesian language, the court must
appoint an interpreter. Unfortunately, the article did not
specify or even mention who should pay.