Retired judge admits meeting 'case broker'

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)