Camelia Pasandaran, Jakarta – How can a graft suspect stop a criminal case in its tracks? Simple: Just file a judicial review request with the Constitutional Court, a tactic recently employed by a number of high-profile suspects.

The court has for years complained about judicial review requests being filed against almost every confusing or overlapping piece of legislation – there were 296 review requests for 108 laws last year alone.

This year, however, the court also has had to contend with review requests of a different sort, namely those filed by corruption suspects, including the likes of former Justice Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra and former top police detective Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji.

Constitutional Court Justice Akil Mochtar on Tuesday said that the tactic was catching on for two reasons. Firstly, because Indonesia does not have a system allowing citizens to lodge complaints when they feel the government is not acting in line with the constitution.

"Most of the review requests filed revolve around criminal cases and the workings of law enforcement. "These issues should actually be resolved through the filing of constitutional complaints, instead of requests for a law to be reviewed and amended or even abolished. Other countries provide this mechanism [of filing constitutional complaints]. We don't," Akil said.

"Our Constitutional Court currently has no authority to accept constitutional complaints. This should actually be made available to our citizens."

Secondly, Akil noted that the suspects were likely following in the footsteps of antigraft deputies Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M Hamzah.

In November, after a judicial review, the Constitutional Court declared that the extortion case against the two had been fabricated. Criminal investigations were eventually dropped, although the two may yet stand trial.

In September, a review request on the Witness Protection Law filed by Susno was rejected. Being a whistleblower, he tried to have the law amended to gain immunity from prosecution after he was named a suspect.

But the court upheld the law, despite fears that it could prevent whistleblowers from unraveling scandals as they can still be prosecuted themselves.

Susno had spoken out about corruption in the National Police but at the same time has been named a suspect in two graft cases, but the nine member panel ruled that even a whistleblower deemed indispensable to cases could still be prosecuted if involved in criminal activities.

The court has also ruled that Attorney General Hendarman Supandji's term should have ended at the same time as that of the president and the cabinet.

This ruling was issued after a challenge to Hendarman's authority by Yusril, who was charged in June by the AGO in a graft scandal at the ministry while he was in charge.

Yusril has denied the allegations and responded by calling into question Hendarman's authority, claiming he was never officially sworn in.

Yusril recently filed another judicial review request after his first attempt to avoid prosecution failed, as the court's ruling could not be applied retroactively.