Agus Triyono – An internal investigation by the Supreme Court has found no other judges were involved in the bribery scandal that led to the arrest of Central Jakarta Court judge Syarifuddin Umar.
"Our team has been working and so far there is no indication of more judges being involved," Chief Justice Harifin Tumpa said on Friday.
"Let the legal proceedings run and if there is evidence of involvement by someone else, or money flow to the Central Jakarta District Court chairman or to the chief justice, just report them."
Syarifuddin was arrested on June 1 by officials of the Eradication Corruption Commission (KPK) for allegedly accepting Rp 250 million ($29,000) from Puguh Wirayawan, a curator of Skycamping Indonesia. The bribe is suspected to have been paid to smooth the sale of the company's assets in Bekasi.
Syarifuddin's permission was needed for the sale of the assets, plots of land in Bekasi worth about Rp 25 billion.
Harifin said the Syarifuddin he knew was good, professional and brave. While serving as the South Sulawesi High Court chairman, Harifin said, he had proposed that Syarifuddin be promoted to head Jeneponto District Court.
"I must admit that I know Syarifuddin well. He is good but good can turn bad and vice versa," he told reporters.
Following his arrest, nongovernmental group Indonesia Corruption Watch claimed Syarifuddin had a reputation for acquitting many graft defendants. His latest verdict was the acquittal last month of Bengkulu Governor Agusrin Najamuddin who was accused of embezzling more than Rp 20 billion of provincial tax revenues.
Over the past few years, Syarifuddin has acquitted 39 graft defendants, ICW said. The troubled judge, who has been s uspended since his arrest, has defended himself by saying that as a judge, he has the authority to clear a defendant if no strong evidence is found.
At the time of Syarifuddin's arrest, officials found bank notes in various currencies, including Rp 392 million, $116,128, $245,000 Singapore dollars, 20,000 yen and 12,600 Cambodian Riels. On Friday, KPK officials searched his North Jakarta home again and found more currency from Singapore and Thailand.
Meanwhile, the Judicial Commission complained that it had recommended sanctions, from reprimand to dismissal, against 97 judges between 2005 and 2010, but the top court only responded to 12 of them.
The Supreme Court apparently rejected most recommendations which were based on the commission's evaluation of the judges' verdicts, said Suparman Marzuki, who heads the judges' monitoring unit.
"They argued that our recommendations were based on verdicts. They said the commission should not investigate any verdict, while we considered that many verdicts were suspicious," Suparman said.