Long-awaited Akbar verdict due next week: Justice

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The ongoing speculation over the much-awaited verdict of the appeal sought by House Speaker Akbar Tandjung may end soon as the Supreme Court has arranged a time to hear the case next week.

"God willing it will (be issued next week). The head of the panel (of judges) will set the schedule on Monday for us to discuss," Justice Abdurrahman Saleh, one of the five judges on the panel hearing Akbar's case, said on Friday.

He said he had finished examining the case, the last among the five judges to do so.

Abdurrahman replaced Laica Marzuki, who was appointed deputy chief of the Constitutional Court in October last year.

The four other justices hearing Akbar's appeal are Parman Suparman, Arbijoto, Muchsin and Paulus Effendy Lotulung, who leads the panel.

The meeting of the five judges is the last phase of the hearing process of an appeal. Due to its importance, the Supreme Court appointed five judges, two more than in normal cases.

All panel members are usually given time to examine a case and submit their written opinions to the head of the panel.

Abdurrahman said that the panel hearing Akbar's appeal would meet to discuss the legal opinion of each member.

"A judge who previously said something is red may change his opinion during the discussion. It depends on the legal arguments of each of us," he said.

The panel usually takes a unanimous decision, but in the case of a deadlock, there will be a vote.

Abdurrahman dismissed widespread speculation that three of the five judges had ruled in favor of Akbar.

"It's just a rumor. How do you know that? We haven't even discussed it," he said.

The political career of Akbar is at stake following his conviction in a Rp 40 billion graft case involving State Logistics Agency funds allocated for a welfare program when he was the minister/state secretary under president B.J. Habibie.

Speculation had been rife that the money went to Golkar, which Akbar leads, to help Habibie win his presidential bid in 1999.

Akbar is contesting the Golkar convention scheduled for mid- April to select the party's sole candidate in the July presidential election.

If the Supreme Court rules in favor of Akbar, he will emerge the strongest contender in the Golkar convention. Otherwise, his political career will be over.

The Supreme Court's verdict is final, meaning that it must be executed regardless of further legal challenges like a review or request for clemency.

Chief Justice Bagir Manan had earlier said the verdict on Akbar would be delivered in August or September last year. However, it was postponed following the appointment of Laica to the Constitutional Court in October.

Akbar, who remains free pending appeal, was sentenced to three years in prison by the Central Jakarta District Court. The Jakarta High Court later upheld the lower court's ruling, asserting there was no new convincing evidence that Akbar was not guilty.

The high court also dismissed the appeal of two of Akbar's alleged accomplices in the same case. In a related graft case, the high court recently sentenced former Bulog chairman Rahardi Ramelan to four years imprisonment.