Jakarta – Former Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chairman Busyro Muqoddas on Tuesday called on the Supreme Court to issue a circular ordering all courts in the country to reject pretrial petitions from graft suspects seeking to challenge their legal status through a pretrial mechanism.
In a phenomenon called the "Sarpin effect", more crime suspects in the country have challenged their legal status through a pretrial mechanism after judge Sarpin Rizaldi of the South Jakarta District Court in February controversially approved a pretrial motion filed by Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan to order the KPK to stop investigating him for bribery.
The court made the ruling despite the Criminal Law Procedure Code (KUHAP) granting no authority to a judge to challenge a suspect's status through a pretrial hearing.
"The Supreme Court as the highest authority in the country's judicial system must be responsible for the influx of graft suspects challenging their legal statuses. To solve the problem, it must issue a circular to all state courts across the country," Busyro said on Tuesday.
Apart from scores of graft suspects who have challenged their legal status at courts through a pretrial mechanism across the country, grafts suspects Democratic Party co-founder Sutan Bhatoegana, former religious affairs minister Suryadharma Ali and former Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) chairman Hadi Poernomo recently followed in Budi's footsteps to thwart the KPK's investigation through a pretrial hearing.