Students decry Court's decisions

Students decry Court's decisions

JAKARTA (JP): About 20 students of University of Indonesia
demonstrated yesterday against a series of controversial Supreme
Court decisions.

The Supreme Court's secretary general, Mangatas Nasution, was
accommodating of the protest by university law school students.

The latest decision which touched off the student protest was
one in which the Supreme Court ruled in favor of North Sumatra
prosecutors who sought to annul the court's verdict releasing
labor leader Muchtar Pakpahan.

The students blame Soerjono, the chief justice who retired
Nov. 1 and was replaced by Sarwata, for the decisions.

"Soerjono's decisions have tainted the Supreme Court's image,"
student spokesman Said Zaidansyah said. "What Soerjono did was in
contradiction to what we learn from books."

The criminal code procedures state that prosecutors cannot
seek review in cases where a suspect is released unconditionally
by the Supreme Court.

The protesting students also disagree with a 1995 Supreme
Court decision in which Soerjono ruled in favor of the Irian Jaya
provincial administration in a land dispute.

But the law students have faith that the change in court
leadership will bring positive changes to the court.

"We hope the new chief justice will be willing to review the
decisions that have betrayed the public's sense of justice,"
Zaidansyah said. (08)