Jakarta – The head of Indonesia's Supreme Court has defended its recent decision to clear parliamentary speaker Akbar Tandjung of corruption. The ruling has been seen by many as a setback for judicial reform in Indonesia.

Chief Judge Bagir Manan also accused a lower court judge, who resigned in protest at the Akbar ruling, of lying.

Asked by reporters about the negative public reaction, the chief judge said every judicial decision had supporters and detractors. "That must be regarded as normal," he said on the sidelines of a seminar on legal reform.

The decision sparked a demonstration yesterday by hundreds of students from the Indonesian Muslim University in South Sulawesi's capital of Makassar, who staged a rally outside their campus, burning tyres and blocking the street.

The protest turned violent as police fired into the air and chased demonstrators into the campus. Students retaliated by throwing rocks and other objects. No one was seriously injured.

Mr Akbar, a presidential aspirant, was cleared last Thursday of misappropriating 40 billion rupiah (S$7.4 million) in state funds which were allocated in 1999 to feed the poor. Two lower courts found him guilty but the Supreme Court upheld his appeal.

A prominent political scientist called the decision a setback for reform while the national press, and the public, have widely criticised the decision.

The Supreme Court blamed Mr Akbar's two co-defendants, who on Friday began serving 18-month prison terms for their roles in the scandal.

Mr Manan said it was up to the media as to whether the ruling worsened the image of Indonesia's judiciary – which is seen as severely tarnished.

Mr Amiruddin Zakaria, head of the district court which initially sentenced Mr Akbar to three years in jail, has said that he will resign.