VIVAnews – The Constitutional Court has mandated that the House of Representatives (DPR) must prepare the Law on Corruption Court by December 2009. There is only one year to go and DPR has only produced a draft of the Corruption Court Draft Bill. And even so, the draft, according to Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), attempts to degrade corruption legal handling itself.
"There is an attempt to hamper the completion of the Draft Bill on Corruption Court. The implication is that the corruption cases handled by law enforcement agencies, including Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), will be returned to public courts. This means that until the due date (December 2009), DPR would not have completed the Draft Bill of Corruption Court," member of ICW Working Body Emerson Yuntho related to VIVAnews on Monday, Dec 8.
If legalized, ICW views three potential factors which may degrade the corruption court and the Corruption Eradication Commission, which have helped put several former ministers and DPR members into jail. The issues include the court's position, composition of ad hoc and career judges, and authority of the Corruption Court and the Supreme Court in determining the number of and composition of judges. "If the three issues are legalized by DPR, it will help push the attempt to degrade corruption court (and legal handling), both in terms of performance and public trust. An attempt to hamper KPK and the Corruption Court may be done, among other ways, by intercepting their authorities in the Law on Corruption Court," said Emerson.
The first point, the Draft Bill places courts in regency and municipality levels. According to ICW, the transformation of one corruption court which is situated in Jakarta into several anti-corruption courts will result in problems of limited human resources, low funding and difficulty in monitoring. The number of regencies/municipalities in Indonesia is up to 434. Therefore, using 1:5 comparison, around 2,170 judges will be needed to cover those regencies/municipalities. "For now, such a number is impossible to meet," said Emerson. ICW suggested that corruption court imitate the State Administrative Court (PTUN), which is spread across five regions, or, stay with the current model but add the number of judges.
The second point, unclear composition of ad hoc and career judges will result in higher increase in the number of career judges compared to ad hoc judges. Compare the current composition based on Law on Corruption Eradication Committee, which stated that the board of judges is to be comprised of three ad hoc judges and two career judges. According to ICW, the public has been having doubts over the integrity of career judges (of public court), as well as the non-transparent and unaccountable selection processes by the Supreme Court in assigning corruption career judges.
The third point, the determination of the number and composition by the head of the Court and the head of the Supreme Court may result in discretionary intervention in choosing personnel based on certain interests. Such intervention would affect verdicts and release of defendants.
Translated by: Bonardo Maulana Wahono, Ramona Sofianne Dewi.
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