Names of prosecutors for ad hoc rights trial released
Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The names of 24 prosecutors comprising the ad hoc human rights tribunal to hear cases of human rights abuses in East Timor, was finally made public by the Attorney General's Office on Tuesday.
Attorney General M.A. Rachman is scheduled to preside over the swearing in of the prosecutors, comprising 15 active state prosecutors, seven retired prosecutors and two active military prosecutors, on Friday.
No further information on the prosecutors was available, except that several of the appointees were members of a team of investigators who probed the East Timor mayhem before and after its vote for independence in August 1999.
The announcement itself was unexpected as the Attorney General's Office's spokesman Barman Zahir had told reporters earlier that no names would be released until Friday.
Such a stance has raised widespread skepticism due to the non- transparent process of the recruitment of the prosecutors, despite the fact that the law grants the Attorney General the prerogative to pick the prosecutors without advice from the public.
The argument was also used to explain how the office kept on changing the number of prosecutors, reducing it from 34 to 26 before deciding that 24 was enough to hear the 12 East Timor cases.
"The recruitment process is in the hands of top executives at the office ... it's the prerogative of the Attorney General," Barman told a media briefing on Thursday.
Human rights activist Bambang Widjojanto told The Jakarta Post that the office should prove to the public that the prosecutors would act properly by letting the public supervise their performance.
"An inherent controlling body should be established, where academics and the public along with the officials can assess the performance of the prosecutors -- how strong the indictment is or how proper the punishment is that they demand," Bambang said.
He also suggested a revision of Law No. 26/2000 on human rights tribunals which fails to mention the need to involve non- career prosecutors in the team of prosecutors for human rights cases.
The prosecutors for human rights cases
Abdul Hamid, Head of East Kalimantan Prosecutors' Office
Darmono, Head of West Jakarta Prosecutors' Office
Roesmanadi, Attorney General's Office's expert staffer
K. Lere, Staffer at AGO's general crimes pre-prosecution
Ketut Murtika, Staffer at AGO's civil and state administration cases
Cirus Sinaga, Staffer at AGO's general affairs
James Pardede, Staffer of legal bureau at AGO's career development affairs
Widodo Supriyadi, Intelligence chief at North Jakarta Prosecutors' Office
Nasir A. Maksum, Staffer at AGO's internal supervision
G. Simangunsong, Retired state prosecutor
S. Hozie, Staffer at AGO's general crimes affairs
Diah Srikanti, Civil and state administrative cases chief at North Jakarta Prosecutors' Office
Zainal Djaprin, Staffer at North Jakarta Prosecutors' Office
Maman Suherman, Special Crimes cases chief at Sumber Prosecutors' Office
Maju Ambarita, Staffer at Jakarta Prosecutors' Office internal supervision
Harry Ismi, Staffer at AGO's civil and state administration cases
Col. Djojo Djohari, Head of control division at TNI's military prosecutors' office
Lt. Col. Muchtar, Head of criminal investigation division at TNI's military prosecutors' office
A.M. Nainggolan, Retired state prosecutor
Ruslan, Retired state prosecutor
Pieters J. Silalahi, Retired state prosecutor
Syaefudin, Retired state prosecutor
Dien Murdinah, Retired state prosecutor
Iskandar Mansur, Retired state prosecutor.