Nawir Arsyad Akbar, Jakarta – The Attorney General's Office (AGO) has named three judges as suspects in a bribery case involving the handling of crude palm oil (CPO) exports, showing that there is still a judicial mafia in Indonesia.
Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) believes that the incident should be used as grounds for an evaluation of the internal governance of the Supreme Court (MA).
"There needs to be a comprehensive overhaul of the internal governance of the Supreme Court. The naming of the bribery suspects shows the danger of the judicial mafia. The practice of buying and selling verdicts to manipulate decisions has reached a chronic state", wrote ICW in a written statement on Wednesday April 16.
Based on ICW's monitoring, as many as 29 judges have been named suspects in corruption cases over a period of 13 years, from 2011 to 2024. The 29 judges are suspected of accepting bribes to manipulate the results of court decisions.
"Based on ICW's monitoring, from 2011 to 2024, 29 judges have been named as corruption suspects. They are suspected of accepting bribes to 'manage' verdicts. The value of the bribes is as much as 107,999,281,345 rupiah", wrote ICW.
ICW also urged the Supreme Court to view the judicial mafia as a latent problem that must be eradicated immediately. The Supreme Court must map out the potential for corruption in judicial institutions by collaborating with the Judicial Commission (KY), the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and civil society organisations.
"The mechanism for monitoring the performance of judges and the requirements for accepting judges also need to be tightened. This must be done to close the potential for corruption", wrote ICW.
As has been reported, on the evening of Sunday April 13 the AGO named three judges as suspects in a bribery case related to the handling of a CPO export cases involving three large companies.
They are Agam Syarif Baharuddin (ASB) and Ali Muhtarom (AM), who are judges at the Central Jakarta District Court (PN), and Djuyamto (DJU), a judge at the South Jakarta District Court.
The AGO suspects that the three suspects received bribes from the head of the South Jakarta District Court, Muhammad Arif Nuryanta (MAN), amounting to 22.5 billion rupiah in order that the verdict in the case of the three large corporations would be onslag or an acquittal.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Kasus CPO, ICW: Jual Beli Vonis Berada dalam Kondisi Kronis".]
