Jakarta – Indonesia's Supreme Court was red-faced yesterday when newspapers splashed the transcript of a tape recording in which one of its clerks could be heard saying that a verdict was for sale to the highest bidder.

The 20-minute 1997 recording was released to the local press by lawyer Kamal Firdaus in Jakarta on Wednesday in the presence of Supreme Court secretary-general Pramono and several lawyers, the Kompas daily said. "I am hurt. This is sickening, embarrassing and saddening for law enforcement in Indonesia," Mr Pramono said after listening to the taped conversation.

The clerk, identified only as Mr Anhar, could be heard advising Mr Firdaus by phone that it was not the amount that counted in winning his case, but whether he offered more money to the court than his opponent. "If you give us 50 million rupiah but your opponent gives us more, then the case will be won by your opponent," Mr Anhar told Mr Firdaus in the taped phone conversation. (The sum of 50 million rupiah amounted to US$20,830 at the time)

Mr Anhar also told Mr Firdaus to "hurry up" and place money into a Bank Central Asia account which he said was his wife's, if he wanted to speed up the case which had dragged on for five years. Details of the case were not revealed.

Mr Pramono was quoted by the Indonesian Observer as saying the interrogation of Mr Anhar had begun and the matter should be resolved within three weeks.

The case, which Mr Firdaus said had been won by his client in 1998, came to light as the government began selecting 22 new judges for the Supreme Court. The government's nominees must be approved by the People's Consultative Assembly, the country's highest legislative body, and intense lobbying by political parties is underway.

Meanwhile, the business weekly Warta Ekonomi charged yesterday that at least six commercial court judges were in the practice of regularly "selling verdicts" in bankruptcy cases. It said the commercial court, which was supposed to help rebuild the credibility of the country's bankruptcy system, had produced judges and lawyers willing to deal in judicial rulings.

A member of the national commission for law, Mr Frans Hendra Winata, was quoted as saying it was apparent that certain judges handed down verdicts regularly in favour of certain lawyers. "If you look at ... the bankruptcy cases that have been heard so far, you can see that cases involving particular lawyers are often handled by the same judges ... and those lawyers always win their cases," Mr Winata said. A lawyer, who declined to be named, told the magazine that corrupt judges typically demanded a percentage of the value of the case.