Novianti Setuningsih – The recent arrest of a lawyer for allegedly bribing a Supreme Court official has sparked a debate between those who say the case is just the tip of the iceberg, and the bar association, which has played it down as an isolated incident.

Hifdzil Alim, a researcher with Gadjah Mada University's Center for Anti-Corruption Studies (Pukat), said on Tuesday that the arrest last week of Mario Bernardo, from the law firm of Hotma Sitompoel & Associates, signaled that graft in the judiciary was a major problem.

"The scale of corruption is simply massive because it has pervaded into all levels of the state," he said.

He said the case corroborated long-held public perceptions that many lawyers were dishonest and tended to bribe their way to favorable verdicts. "They're paid to be as slick as they can in defending their clients," Hifdzil said.

While he admitted to not being surprised at news that a lawyer had been arrested for bribery, he maintained that not all the details in Mario's case had come to light yet and that he should not be presumed guilty at this point.

However, Hifdzil said the case should nonetheless spur the country's bar association to implement stronger internal controls to crack down on corruption and other illegal acts by its members.

Busted

Mario was arrested on Thursday in a sting operation by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) after allegedly handing Rp 78 million ($7,570) in cash to Djodi Supratman, a Supreme Court official.

Johan Budi, a spokesman for the KPK, said that antigraft investigators had suspected for some time that Djodi was on the take and had received information that he had allegedly taken an initial bribe of Rp 50 million from Mario last Wednesday.

Based on information gleaned from a phone tap, the KPK learned that he was due to pick up a second payment on Thursday at Mario's office in Central Jakarta, and that he would go there by ojek, or motorcycle taxi.

Armed with this information, a KPK team staked out the office. Djodi duly turned up at the office on an ojek and went in carrying a bag. When he left shortly afterward, the KPK investigators noticed a prominent bulge in the bag that hadn't been there before.

They tailed the ojek to the National Monument area, where they stopped it and searched the bag, confirming that it contained Rp 78 million in cash.

Some of the investigators then returned to the law office, where, pretending to be clients, they asked to meet with Mario. When he appeared, they arrested him.

Both Mario and Djodi are now in the KPK's custody and have been charged under the 1999 Anti-Corruption Law. "For now we've seized Rp 128 million: Rp 78 million from the bag that D.S. was carrying, and Rp 50 million from his home," Johan said.

He added that the figure was part of up to Rp 300 million allegedly promised by Mario to Djodi in return for a favorable verdict in an appeal mounted by Hutomo Wijaya Ongowarsito.

Hutomo, a businessman, was earlier this year convicted of fraud by a court in Payakumbuh, West Sumatra, and sentenced to a month's probation. His appeal was submitted to the Supreme Court this April and is still being heard.

Turf control

But no direct ties connect the three individuals in question. Mario is not Hutomo's lawyer, while Djodi is a clerk at the court's education and training department, and not a judge.

Taufik Basari, a lawyer who has extensively researched the phenomenon of the "judicial mafia," said the system was set up in such a way that none of the actors had to be linked to one another in order for the corruption to work.

Each lawyer, he said, had their own particular "turf" or court where they had built up close ties with officials and judges.

"If there's another lawyer who doesn't have a foothold in that particular court but has a case being heard there, he can ask the first lawyer for help," Taufik said.

Febri Diansyah, a researcher with Indonesia Corruption Watch, agreed that the "foundations" for leveraging favors were laid long before cases came up in court. He said it was considered de rigueur for lawyers to cultivate close relations not just with court officials and judges, but also with police and prosecutors.

"The judicial mafia stretches across the entire range of the country's justice system," he said.

Tommy Sitohang, Mario's lawyer, admitted that his client was cozy with Djodi and often leaned on him for information, but said the money seized was far too little to constitute a bribe for a judge.

"He often asked for information from Djodi about cases being heard at the Supreme Court. For instance, whether a verdict had been handed down or not, because the announcements on the court's website always come out late," he said.

"But there's no way he would give just Rp 78 million to bribe a judge. A judge's lunch alone costs more than Rp 20 million," Tommy added.

Bad egg

The Indonesian Bar Association (Peradi) insists that the country's lawyers are for the most part clean, and has played down Mario's case as an isolated incident that has "shamed the legal profession."

"This matter is highly regrettable because it tarnishes the reputation of all lawyers," said Otto Hasibuan, the Peradi chief.

He said the association would support all efforts by the KPK to get to the bottom of the case, but added that there were no plans yet to dismiss or even suspend Mario's membership in Peradi.

"We don't know yet whether he's guilty or not. If he is, then he'll be automatically stripped of his license to practice as a lawyer. And if he's convicted, that also means that he's contravened [Peradi's] code of ethics," he said.

He added that the association had strived to boost the professionalism of its members and had made it a point to dismiss members if proven guilty of even the most minor of infractions.

Sugeng Teguh Santosa, the Peradi deputy chairman, said the association would crack down on all members suspected of being part of the judicial mafia. "This is a good time to completely rid the lawyer's profession of all dirty acts like these," he said.

The KPK has said it could call in Hotma Sitompoel, a high-profile lawyer who is also Mario's uncle, for questioning in connection with the bribery case. "I'll have to check on that, but there's a chance that he'll be summoned, as long as the investigation calls for it," Johan said.

Investigators also plan to question Supreme Court officials. Painting Mario and Djodi as small cogs in the system, the KPK has vowed to go after all those involved in the bribery conspiracy and the wider judicial mafia.