Jakarta – As part of its house cleaning measures, the Supreme Court pledged on Thursday to step up its crackdown on corrupt judges.
Chief Justice Hatta Ali said that the Supreme Court would join the Judicial Commission's investigation into Imron Anwari and Nyak Pha, two justices who issued a controversial ruling in October to commute the death sentence of Hengky Gunawan, a drug lord.
The Supreme Court has also decided to crack down on judges who make bad judgements in their personal lives.
Hatta said that the Supreme Court had just handed down a punishment to a female judge, identified only as ADA, from the Simalungun District Court in North Sumatra for having an extramarital affair with a married man.
"The Supreme Court's oversight committee has completed the investigation. But we have yet to get convincing evidence of an extramarital affair. It is hard to find evidence in such a case," he added.
In spite of having no evidence, the Supreme Court accused the judge of misconduct and sanctioned her by cutting her monthly allowance and reprimanding her.
As for Imron and Nyak, the Supreme Court in collaboration with the Judicial Commission will hold an ethics tribunal to hear their case.
The two judges, along with Judge Ahmad Yamani, caused an uproar when they cut Hengky's sentence from life to 15 years in prison.
Hengky was arrested in 2006 with 11.1 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine, locally called shabu, valued at Rp 10.8 billion (US$1.13 million) and raw materials for the drug's production. He was also suspected of operating a drug laboratory in Surabaya, East Java.
The Judicial Commission has indicated that the ruling was influenced by bribery.
"If the KY [Judicial Commission] finds that the two justices breached the code of ethics, just go ahead and summon them. I don't have a problem with that, as long as they limit their investigation to the ethics violation, not the substance of the case," Hatta said at a press conference in Jakarta on Thursday.
Earlier, the ethics council, consisting of Supreme Court justices and Judicial Commission members, dismissed Justice Yamani for conspiring with the court's registrar to further cut the Hengky's sentence from 15 to 12 years.
The 12-year prison term was then uploaded onto the court's official website, mahkamahagung.go.id.
Prior to the current scandal, Yamani came under fire for other controversial rulings, such as when he annulled the 17-year sentence of drug dealer Naga Sariawan Cipto Rimba, alias Liong-Liong, in May last year. He helped annul death sentences for drug convicts on at least three occasions.
At the press conference, Hatta also said the Supreme Court's oversight committee had recommended sanctions for 160 court officials, including 73 judges, between January and Dec. 26. The figure from last year was 130, including 53 judges.
Hatta, however, admitted that the Supreme Court lacked the resources to monitor all judges in the country. "The court's oversight committee, which consists of 40 judges, has to supervise over 8,000 judges and 35,000 court officials. More than 600 rulings a year need to be scrutinized," he said.
Contacted separately, Judicial Commission spokesperson Asep Rachmat Fajar said that the Supreme Court had made the right decision to punish ADA. "We have strong evidence of the judge's extramarital affair," Asep said. (yps)