'People's sense of justice ignored'

'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)