VIVAnews – As many as 277 out of 444 accused of corruption was acquitted by the public courts in 2008. The Supreme Court holds the highest record, finding 121 defendants not guilty.
“This is due to the weak supervision of the Supreme Court and the poor performance of the Judicial Commission,” said Emerson Yuntho, Head of Law and Judicial Supervision Department of the Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW), Jakarta, Sunday, Jan. 4.
According to ICW’s records, 159 cases were dismissed in the lower courts. Meanwhile 10 cases were dismissed at the higher court level. 25 cases were dismissed at the Supreme Court level.
A judicial review decision that acquitted 33 members of West Sumatra regional house of representatives in February 2008 was viewed as an anti-climactic moment in Indonesia’s corruption eradication efforts. “The decision of the supreme court justices will set a bad jurisprudence (precedent) for lower level judges,” said Yuntho.
As for the guilty verdicts, Yuntho continued to say, they have not resulted in deterrence effect for corruptors. “The number of accused that were given one-year verdicts was 78,” he said. The light punishments, he said, are given because the judges tend to give the minimum sentence. “This will become jurisprudence (precedent),” he said. “It’s not impossible that in the future many judges will give verdicts below one year or a mere few months,” Yuntho continued.
Sentences between one and two years were given to 55 defendants. Meanwhile sentences between two to five years were given to 18 defendants. A total of five were given 10 years of imprisonment. Only one was sentenced to over 10 years of imprisonment.
The lightest punishment, said Yuntho, was a six-month imprisonment given by the Serui District Court to former chairman of Yapen Waropen regional house of representatives, Amon Wanggai. He was found guilty of corruption with regard to the regional budget funds.
The heaviest punishment was given to Dikky Iskandardinata, who was sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment in the case of Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) corruption by liquidating fictive letters of credit at the BNI Central Branch in Kebayoran Baru.
ICW’s records show that for the duration of 2008, members of regional house of representatives constitute most of the accused with a total of 178 individuals. Second in line is the private sector with 83 accused.
According to ICW, the acquittals are a result of several factors, namely because the prosecutors were unable to establish a strong case or purposely built a weak case, and because the judges’ deliberation were in favor of the accused. "Or because of a combination of weak charges and judges’ deliberation that benefits corruptors,” said Yuntho.
Translated by: Ramona Sofianne Dewi Sasradipoera
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