Supreme Court prepares bill on contempt of court

JAKARTA (JP): The Supreme Court is preparing a contempt of court bill which would protect judges from abusive actions and words in the courtroom.

"A team comprising senior officials of the Supreme Court has been preparing an academic text of the bill over the past three months," Supreme Court secretary-general Pranowo said on Thursday.

He said the bill was necessary because of the absence of a law on violations committed inside the courtroom and the punishment for these violations. He added that such a bill was particularly needed during the current era of reform, where people were more wont to act and speak freely.

The existing Law 14/1985 on the Supreme Court addresses relatively few issues relating to contempt of court.

"The explanation of the law touches on only a few issues (relating to contempt of court)," Pranowo said.

He said he hoped the proposed bill would help raise the public's respect for the judiciary, which should serve as the last bastion of justice.

"It's the obligation of every person, especially those who stand before the court, to respect the judiciary," Pranowo said.

Following the resignation of Soeharto as president last May, the courts in Jakarta have been subject to numerous insults by defendants, particularly groups of students.

A number of defendants have gone so far as to walk out of the courtroom during their trials.

Neither judges or the police could do anything to punish these recalcitrant defendants.

Thirty-two students from the University of Indonesia charged with disrupting traffic, appeared at the South Jakarta District Court last June wearing paper masks bearing the likeness of the smiling face of former president Soeharto.

The students, arrested during a protest at the Semanggi cloverleaf a few days prior to the trial, refused to obey presiding judge Sultan Mangun's repeated orders to remove the masks.

They listened to the indictments read against them before walking out of the courtroom without obeying the judge's ruling that they each pay a Rp 2,500 fine.

"It humiliated the court," Pranowo said.

According to the existing law, those who fail to obey a court's ruling within one month face one day in jail.

The first well-known contempt of court case in the country involved noted lawyer Adnan Buyung Nasution in 1986. Buyung at the time was representing Gen. Harto Rekso Dharsono, a former chief of the Siliwangi Military Command who was charged with subversion.

During the trial at the Central Jakarta District Court, Buyung shouted at the bench, which according to the judges was unethical. The court asked the then minister of justice to revoke Buyung's law permit.

Mimi Lindawati, 37, threw a shoe at judge Abdul Razak in August last year. She felt the judge had passed too light a sentence on the defendant in the case, Nani. Nani was found guilty of swindling Lindawati of Rp 75 million.

The court later tried Lindawati for the shoe-throwing episode.

Pranowo said the bill would also provide punishments for judges who misbehaved in court.

"We therefore expect there will be no more judges throwing gavels at witness in the court," he said, referring to a case in which a judge threw his gavel at a witness who failed to provide a clear answer to a question.

A member of the Supreme Court team drafting the bill, Djoko Sarwoko, said the discussion of the bill was still in the preliminary stages.

"After completing the academic text, the team might carry out a comparative study with certain countries, such as the Netherlands, where contempt of court laws are already established," Djoko, who is also the Supreme Court's director of criminal affairs, said. (asa)