Irawaty Wardany, Jakarta – The Supreme Court Chief Justice Harifin A Tumpa believes most judges under his institution's supervision are not acting independently when handing out verdicts because they often interact with people whose cases they are hearing.
"In the past 30 years, I haven't noticed much change in the credibility of judges," Harifin said on Friday. "Therefore I urge them to become more independent."
He said that only around 50 percent of them were becoming more independent. "We need to change their perspective. We must stop them from compromising their independence, which they do by interacting with many people including the government and people they are trying."
Previously, Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) and the Indonesian Court Monitoring Society (MAPPI) claimed that only three out of 35 Supreme Court judges were credible.
However, they derived their conclusion from observing judges' personal behavior, such as their involvement in domestic violence and extra-marital affairs.
Harifin is hoping that by 2034, the performance of around 80 percent of judges will have improved, as a result of imposing stricter regulations on them.
On the same day, Harifin and his officials met with five Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) leaders to coordinate the establishment of corruption courts in seven regions, as ordered by the 2009 Corruption Court Law.
The newly enacted law requires the government establish corruption courts in 33 provinces within two years.
However, due to the lack of funding, the government is initially aiming to establish corruption courts in seven provincial capitals: Bandung, West Java; Makassar, South Sulawesi; Medan, North Sumatra; Palembang, South Sumatra; Samarinda, East Kalimantan; Semarang, Central Java; and Surabaya, East Java.
"We are currently in the process of recruiting 56 ad hoc judges to be assigned to those provinces," Harifin explained. Each province will have eight ad hoc judges, four of them assigned to the first court and four others to the appellate corruption courts.
Harifin said the Supreme Court had established a selection team to shortlist ad hoc judges.
KPK interim leader Tumpak Hatorangan Panggabean said they came to the Supreme Court office Friday to coordinate the establishment of the corruption court in the seven provinces.
"We [the KPK] will prosecute at the courts therefore we need to adjust our plan with the Supreme Court," he said. Tumpak added the KPK had also coordinated with the Attorney General's Office (AGO) to help provide office space at the regional prosecutor's premises.
"We are also asking the AGO to give us additional prosecutors. With our current 25 prosecutors, I think we will find it difficult to handle cases in seven provinces," he said.
However, Tumpak said he had not yet discussed the number of prosecutors the KPK might need. "We will just see how many prosecutors the AGO will provide us with," he said.