Observers slam rape case panel proposal

JAKARTA (JP): A lawyer and a judge lashed out at a government plan to issue a regulation that requires at least one judge on a three-member panel trying rape cases to be a woman. They said on Sunday the scheme may breach a fair and honest trial.

"It's not about gender... but how the judges can make honest and fair decisions.

"Judges, whether men or women, must hand down verdicts according to their conscience," Tumbu Saraswati said.

She was commenting on a proposal raised by State Minister for Women's Affairs Khofifah Indar Parawansa last Wednesday that at least one of the three-member judges on rape cases be a woman.

Tumbu, also a People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) legislator from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle faction, said the decree would not assure that female judges would rule in favor of rape victims.

"I have observed many rape cases in which female judges were not in favor of the victims. So instead of establishing a regulation which will harm the prosecution and promote gender- biased verdicts, the government should create circumstances so that the trials are held fairly," she said without elaborating.

A female judge at the Central Jakarta District Court, Endang Soemarsih, shared Tumbu's opinion, saying that the move would only lead to rampant gender discrimination here.

Though acknowledging that there was an unwritten agreement in court that a female judge be included on a panel of judges on every rape case, Endang, however, disagreed with the planned decree.

"Such a regulation is against the spirit of antigender discrimination," she said at her office on Jl. Gadjah Mada in Central Jakarta last Thursday.

Endang said she did not want the antidiscrimination campaign to be weakened by such a regulation.

"Khofifah's statement is a setback. It will raise gender discrimination among judges," said Endang, who has worked as a judge for 18 years.

Meanwhile, a female activist, Ratna Sarumpaet, underlined the importance of establishing a law that would protect the interests of rape victims.

"The judges will find difficulties in handing down fair sentences on rape cases if the law fails to accommodate the interests of rape victims," she said separately on Sunday.

She said gender discrimination should not be a problem as long as the rights of rape victims were protected.

"To get raped is a traumatic experience. If judges fail to accommodate a victim's interest, namely by not imposing tough sentences on convicted rapists, the feelings will worsen," she said. (asa)