Jakarta – Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid yesterday appointed 16 judges to the Supreme Court in support of reform of the country's judicial system.

They include legal expert Bagir Manan and Mr Benjamin Mangkudilaga, the former head of the Jakarta state administrative court and member of the National Commission on Human Rights, a presidential statement said. The 16 were fielded from 17 candidates provided by the People's Representative Council (DPR), the parliamentary Lower House.

The law requires that 40 candidates be proposed by the DPR for the 20 seats at the Supreme Court, but the Lower House had been able to field only 17 candidates. One candidate was not appointed because of a legal clause.

"To accelerate the tasks of the Supreme Court in settling cases and to support the reform in the judicial system, the President appoints 16 from those who have passed the fit and proper test," the presidential statement said.

The appointment of the new judges came in the wake of reports that Indonesia's justice system had been rated as one of the worst in the world. The government has established a panel, headed by Mr Adi Andojo Soetjipto, to eliminate corruption in the judiciary. The team is expected to expose and remove corrupt members.

The panel last month announced that two Supreme Court judges and a former judge had been declared suspects in a bribery case. The Indonesian Observer quoted the National Law Commission as saying that it was surprised that only three judges from the country's highest judicial institution had been named as suspects in a corruption probe.

Commission chairman J.E. Sahetapi said almost 80 per cent of Supreme Court judges in Indonesia were tainted by bribes. "We hope the Attorney-General will take more action to clean up the Supreme Court," he said.