Retired judge admits meeting 'case broker'

JAKARTA (JP): A retired judge who has been accused of accepting bribes told the Central Jakarta District Court on Thursday that he had met a "case broker" at his residence three times, but denied receiving any money.

Yahya Harahap admitted that in 1998, when he was still a Supreme Court justice, Endin Wahyudin came to his home and asked him to rule a certain way in a land dispute case he was hearing.

"I met Endin at my residence three times. He claimed to be a middleman and asked me to help him by ruling a certain way in a case involving a land dispute in which I was acting as the presiding judge," Yahya told the court presided over by Judge Amiruddin.

"In response, I told him to be patient and just wait for us to hand down our verdict. Nevertheless, I never received any money from him," Yahya said.

Endin reported Yahya, along with two other judges, Supraptini Soeprapto and Marnis Kahar, to the Joint Anticorruption Team (TGPTPK). He said that Yahya had received Rp 96 million, while the other two justices had accepted Rp 50 million each.

Supraptini and Marnis, however, filed a complaint with the police, who later charged Endin with defamation.

As a result, Endin is now being tried for slander even though he has been admitted into the witness protection program run by the Attorney General's Office.

In response to Yahya's testimony, Endin insisted that he had given Rp 96 million to Yahya.

"Actually, I should have handed over Rp 100 million, but because I had to travel back and forth from Bandung to Jakarta so many times, I ended up spending Rp 4 million," said Endin, who lives in Bandung.

Other witnesses, Amriel, an assistant to Marnis, and Antonius Daryanto, a member of Supraptini's staff, admitted that they had met Endin at the Supreme Court on several occasions.

They, however, said they did not know whether Endin had entered into any agreement with their superiors. (02)