'People's sense of justice ignored'

JAKARTA (JP): More criticism was voiced yesterday against the Supreme Court over the way it had attempted to cover up alleged collusion involving its senior judges.

A group of lawyers, claiming to represent all Indonesian lawyers, marched to the Supreme Court and told court spokesman Toton Suprapto that the court had trampled on people's sense of justice.

The lawyers' statement cited the way Chief Justice Soerjono tried to deny Justice Adi Andojo Soetjipto's allegation of collusion in the court by saying that what really happened was a "violation of procedures".

"The chief justice's statement implied that the court was reclusive, afraid of being scrutinized," said Effendy Salman who led the group.

"Are we to believe that the Court is infallible?" Effendy said.

The statement was signed by about 100 lawyers from several cities including Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Palembang, Bandar Lampung, Surabaya and Denpasar.

Effendy, the executive director of the Bandung-based Nusantara Legal Aid Institute, also said that injustice occurred in many land dispute cases across the country.

He asked the Supreme Court to heed the people's cry for justice.

Lawyer M. Yamin said the alleged Supreme Court collusion case was only the tip of the iceberg when it came to rampant collusion and corruption in the country's judicial system.

"Because of this situation, public trust of the government is in danger of being eroded," he said, adding that the justices should have taken advantage of their political position to fight collusion and bribery.

Toton asked the lawyers not to generalize, saying that not all justices were the same. "They are individuals with different qualities."

Toton said that around 800 new cases were submitted to the Supreme Court every month. The court tries about 1,000 cases every month, and it still has a backlog of 16,000 cases. (16)