Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Legal experts and critics yesterday described the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the graft conviction for Central Bank governor Syahril Sabirin as yet another blow to Indonesia's legal system.
They said the ruling was further evidence of the country's corrupt legal system, which has recently handed down a slew of controversial verdicts.
The court on Thursday overturned Mr Syahril's guilty verdict by the Jakarta District Court in March and dropped his three-year jail term for misusing US$80 million in bank funds in 1999.
Mr Syahril, who was welcomed by smiling employees of the bank when he reported for work yesterday, had continued working with the full support of the bank governors.
Legal experts also say the ruling highlights the poor performance of the state prosecutors and indicates that the Attorney-General's office is unwilling to launch strong cases against major graft offenders.
"The judges and prosecutors often work together and are often not independent of political influence," said Mr Danang Widoyoko of Corruption Watch.
For example, in June, the local unit of Canada's Manulife Financial Corp was ruled bankrupt despite being fully solvent. The ruling was later overturned by the Supreme Court but only because of significant diplomatic pressure from the Canadian government, say observers.
Mr Mark Baird, the outgoing country director for the World Bank in Indonesia, said that when the courts overturned a decision due to strong international pressure, this was not a sign of judicial reform.
"I don't think you are going to see judicial reform in a fundamental way for several years and certainly you are not going to see the elimination of corruption for many years," he said in a talk to foreign correspondents this week.
Mr Johnson Pandjaitan, secretary-general of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association, said that political and economic vested interests in the Syahril case had ensured he would escape punishment. "It was just a matter of time. Now when everyone had forgotten about his case he was freed," he was quoted as saying.
But despite the negative view, Mr Syahril and other legal observers hailed the court's ruling. "Right from the beginning I was convinced this case was baseless," he told reporters.
Judicial Watch head Andi Asrun said: "This is a fair ruling because since the beginning it was clear this was a politically motivated case as former president Abdurrahman Wahid told him to resign or else he'll go to court."
Mr Andi said that two major suspects in the banking scandal, Mr Tanri Abeng and Mr Baramuli, had not been taken to court because 'they are powerful politically'. Both suspects from the powerful Golkar party were said to be behind the deal which involved siphoning US$80 million of Central Bank funds allegedly to finance the election campaign of former president B.J. Habibie.
Meanwhile, the Attorney-General said yesterday his office would appeal against the overturning of the graft conviction against Mr Syahril.