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.