Dessy Sagita – The Judicial Commission announced on Monday that it had received more than 1,000 complaints so far this year about the conduct of judges.

A spokesman for the watchdog said the number of complaints was up this year, but did not indicate that this was a sign of greater judicial misconduct.

Instead, Asep Rahmat Fajar said more people were aware of the commission and its function.

The Judicial Commission monitors judges and can make disciplinary recommendations to the Supreme Court.

"As of the end of April, we had received 1,001 complaints about the actions of judges, prosecutors and police officers," Asep said. This is an increase from the same period over the past three years, he added.

Asep also said the complaints process was now more open, with people being able to file reports by phone, via post and online.

Danang Wijayanto, head of the commission's judge monitoring bureau, said most of the reports so far this year concerned judges' lack of professionalism, discipline, productivity and honesty.

"Some reported illegal drug use by judges, but that's not under our authority," he said.

Asep said nearly half of the reports filed could not be processed because the complaints fell outside the authority of the commission. These included requests for verdicts to be revised. "We do not have the authority to change court verdicts," he said.

One of the main criticisms of the commission is that it lacks the necessary bite to disciple judges. And while complaints may be up this year, only a fraction of them have gone anywhere.

Asep said that as of the end of March, only 111 of the complaints had reached the commission's discussion panel.

He said 17 judges had been summoned so far over alleged ethics violations. Of those, 16 had answered the summons, while the one judge who refused had been punished by the Supreme Court.

Asep said the commission was very selective in choosing which cases to pursue. He also said the commission did not have the authority to force judges to answer a summons.

"According to the rules, we can't force judges to come, however, if they decide not to come, we can still make a recommendation based on the information in our possession," he said.

Judges who ignore a summons from the commission, he added, were missing the chance to defend themselves.

"They may opt not to answer our summons, but don't blame us if we give a recommendation to the Supreme Court that can affect their career," he said.

From 2005 to 2010, Asep said, the commission had received more than 9,000 reports, but only 300 judges had been summoned and investigated. Of those, only 90 had been found guilty, with the recommendation that they be removed from the bench.