Irawaty Wardany, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono signed a decree on Wednesday to establish a special team to eradicate judicial corruption, as part of the administration's first-100-days program, a presidential staffer said Friday.
The team will be chaired by the Presidential Development Monitoring and Control Unit chief (UKP4) Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, Presidential legal affairs staffer Denny Indrayana said. Denny himself will act as team secretary.
The team also comprises Deputy Attorney General Darmono, Brig. Gen. Herman Effendi from the National Police, Financial Transactions Report and Analysis Center (PPATK) chairman Yunus Husein and former Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) interim leader Mas Achmad Santosa.
"The team will have to coordinate, evaluate and correct every legal measure to accelerate efforts to eradicate judicial corruption," Denny said as quoted by detik.com news portal. The team is set to hold their initial meeting on Monday at 10 a.m. to discuss their mission, Mas Achmad told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
Combating judicial corruption has become one of the government's top priorities in its first-100-days program.
The establishment of the team was one of the recommendations submitted by a presidential fact-finding team investigating allegations of a high level plot to incriminate two leaders of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah.
Previously, however, Kuntoro had said the establishment of the team was "related, but not necessarily a response to the recommendations of the fact-finding team".
Judicial corruption has long been major stumbling block for the Indonesian legal system, but until recently was largely ignored by the government and the public. Following the arrest of Bibit and Chandra, however, and the subsequent revelation of plot to frame them by Anggodo Widjojo, the brother of a corruption fugitive Anggoro Widjojo, public and political support for judicial reform swelled.
Voice recordings played at a Constitutional Court hearing on November 2009 revealed details of Anggodo's plan, who through his middlemen Ari Muladi and Edi Soemarsono, assigned roles for police, prosecutors and witnesses to play in an attempt to evade justice. The hearing lead to a public outcry, urging President Yudhoyono to end corruption within the justice system.
The voice recordings implicated several senior officers at the National Police and the Attorney General's Office.
Previously, the public was also shocked when senior prosecutor Urip Tri Gunawan who was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison for having received a US$660,000 bribe from businesswoman Artalyta Suryani.
At that stage Urip was leading a team investigating the Bank Indonesia Liquidity Support (BLBI) cases implicating tycoon Sjamsul Nursalim, a close relative of Artalyta.
During an AGO investigation, among 37 witnesses summoned Sjamsul was the only one who managed to evade interrogation sessions for his alleged involvement in the BLBI case. Sjamsul, the former owner of the now-defunct Bank Dagang Nasional Indonesia, had been implicated in the embezzlement of Rp 28.4 trillion ($3.1 billion) in BLBI funds.