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Sentence justice Sudrajad to life imprisonment
Many, if not most, Indonesians believe the Sudradjad bribery case is just the tip of the iceberg at the country’s highest court.
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The Supreme Court building in Central Jakarta. (Courtesy of the Supreme Court/-)
T
he Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) should demand a maximum sentence for Supreme Court Justice Sudrajad Dimyati, just as it dealt with former Constitutional Court justice Akil Mochtar some years ago. The KPK named Sudrajad a suspect in a bribery case last week, making him the first Supreme Court justice the commission has ensnared, despite allegations that the institution has long been rife with corruption.
Sudrajad’s promotion to the Supreme Court as problematic from the very beginning. The then-deputy head of the West Kalimantan High Court failed to win the House of Representatives’ approval in the race for Supreme Court seats in 2013 after a journalist caught him handing an envelope to a lawmaker during a toilet break in 2013. No investigation followed the incident, and the following year, Sudrajad passed the House’s screening.
Many, if not most, Indonesians believe the Sudrajad bribery case is just the tip of the iceberg at the country’s highest court, where – the current case aside – justices seem accountable only to God. To win a case by bribing judges is believed to be common practice, as the Sudrajad case has indicated.
Indeed, justice has its currency in our beloved Indonesia.
I don’t believe Sudrajad committed the act of corruption without the knowledge of his colleagues. And the KPK suspects he was finalizing another bribery deal with the same people whom the antigraft body named suspects along with him last week.
KPK investigators contend they caught eight people, including six Supreme Court officials, accepting S$202,000 (US$141,266) and Rp 2.2 billion (US$145,578) from two lawyers last Wednesday. Sudrajad allegedly accepted Rp 800 million of that figure through Elly Tri Pangestu, a substitute registrar at the court.
Sudrajad surrendered to the KPK on Friday after denying his connection with the bribery attempt.
