The Judiciary Commission has urged the Supreme Court to investigate the possible leak of its ruling against Djoko Soegiarto Tjandra, convicted in a Rp 546 billion (US$54.6 million) bank scandal, which enabled him to flee the country before the ruling was officialy handed down.
Commission Chief Busyro Muqoddas said Saturday that the public had voiced concern over the possibility that the verdict was leaked from within the Supreme Court, giving Djoko, who was sentenced to two years in prison, time to escape to Papua New Guinea just a day before the verdict was handed down.
"The Supreme Court must respond to the public's concerns regarding Djoko's escape. The Chief Justice should investigate who disclosed the information," Busyro told reporters.
"They *whoever leaked the information* must be punished and dismissed from the court," he said.
Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) said it was impossible for Djoko to know the verdict before hand without someone from inside the court telling him.
"We have a strong reason to suspect information was leaked from the inside," Danang Widyoko of the ICW said Sunday.
Chief Justice Harifin Tumpa however rejected claims the verdict was leaked.
"I am sure there was no leakage," he told reporters on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Djoko's lawyer has promised the businessman will return to Indonesia and surrender to the Attorney General's Office (AGO) immediately, despite the fact that he has failed to contact his client since he fled.
"I've met Djoko Tjandra's family recently and told them that it would be better for him to surrender, and they responded positively," Djoko's lawyer Otto Cornelius Kaligis told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
AGO spokesman Jasman Pandjaitan told the press last week that Djoko flew to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, on June 10, using a rented plane from Halim Perdanakusumah airport, Jakarta.
Kaligis denied Djoko fled to Port Moresby to avoid imprisonment, saying, "He went there on a business trip. My client also runs a lot of business there."
Kaligis said his client needed several days to calm down. "He is still shocked after hearing that the Supreme Court sentenced him to two years in jail."
The court has sentenced former central bank governor Syahril Sabirin to two years in jail in the same case. He began serving his term at the Cipinang Prison in East Jakarta on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, lawyers for both convicts said that they would file a judicial review against the Supreme Court's verdict.
Kaligis and Sjahril's lawyer, M. Assegaff, say the court's verdict was "irregular". "The law and Criminal Law Procedures Code (KUHAP) stipulate that a judicial review can be only filed by the convict, not prosecutors," Assegaff told the Post.(bbs)
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