Yusril admits to intervention

Yusril admits to intervention

JAKARTA: Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yusril Ihza
Mahendra said on Wednesday that he had intervened to stop the
Supreme Court from promoting a district court chief in Jakarta.

Yusril told House of Representatives Commission II on legal
and home affairs that he vetoed the Supreme Court's plan to
promote Judge Lalu Mariyun, a former head of the South Jakarta
District Court, to the Kendari District Court in Southeast
Sulawesi.

"I said no," Yusril said, adding that his intervention was
"nothing but a matter of appropriateness".

Lalu was instead moved to Surabaya as a judge with the East
Java High Court.

The judge is no stranger to controversy. He led a panel of
judges who decided former president Soeharto was not fit to stand
trial on graft charges.

In September 2000, Lalu acquitted Soeharto's youngest son,
Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, and businessman Ricardo Gelael on
corruption charges in the high-profile Bulog land deal. -- JP