Replacement of judges in BUN case trial sought

Replacement of judges in BUN case trial sought

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The prosecutors handling a graft trial involving officials of
the now-defunct Bank Umum Nasional (BUN) have demanded the
replacement of the panel of judges under suspicion of a conflict
of interest following the court's decision not to hear the
testimony of a witness.

The Attorney General's Office wrote to the head of the Central
Jakarta District Court and also to the Jakarta High Court and the
Supreme Court on Wednesday, to protest the district court's
decision during Tuesday's hearing.

Office spokesman Barman Zahir told reporters on Wednesday that
presiding judge Amiruddin Zakaria had used a weak argument in
refusing to hear the testimony of the prosecutors' expert witness
Oei Hoei Tiong, an executive from the central bank, Bank
Indonesia.

"The prosecutors concluded that the presiding judge has an
interest in the ongoing prosecution because his decision was
based on the request of the lawyers of the defendants. We demand
the replacement of the presiding judge or the whole panel of
judges, trying the case," Barman said.

In Tuesday's hearing, the lawyers of the defendants -- BUN
director Leonard Tanubrata and vice commissioner Kaharudin Ongko
-- filed an objection against the expert witness provided by the
prosecutors, saying that the central bank was also implicated in
the case.

The judges -- Amiruddin, Andi Samsan Nganro and I Ketut Gede
-- accepted the objection although the prosecutors, led by Arnold
Angkow, had protested the judges' decision on the grounds that
the Criminal Code Procedures (KUHAP) had regulated that the court
must hear all testimonies which had been recorded in the
dossiers.

The judges based their argument merely on a Supreme Court
circular which stated that it was the panel of judges who had the
authority to decide which witnesses could be produced in the
courtroom, Barman said.

The case, which also involves BUN commissioner, tycoon Mohamad
"Bob" Hasan, centers around the alleged misuse of Rp 6.7 trillion
(US$670 million) of Bank Indonesia's emergency loans disbursed
between November 1997 and April 1998.