Supreme Court prepares 1,200 judges for graft trials

JAKARTA: The Supreme Court has called on 1,200 judges to oversee corruption cases in the event that the Corruption Court is forced to close at the end of this year.

"We are preparing them *just in case*. But also overall we need more judges to handle corruption cases," Supreme Court chief Harifin Andi Tumpa said to tempointeraktif.com during a seminar at the Supreme Court building.

If a draft law on the Corruption Court fails to be enacted by Dec. 19, 2009, the Corruption Court will be dissolved and trials under its investigation will be handed over to district courts, Harifin said.

The Constitutional Court found that the Corruption Court had violated the Constitution when it was founded under the 2002 law on the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) instead of the law on judicial power.

Initially, the Constitutional Court had allowed the Corruption Court until Dece mber to complete the necessary legislation for it to remain operational. - JP