Arghea Desafti Hapsari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 09/22/2010 10:01 AM
The Supreme Court has turned down an appeal lodged by lawyers of disgraced former antigraft chief Antasari Azhar, convicted in a high profile murder case that has left the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) beleaguered.
The court’s appeal council, presided by Artidjo Alkotsar, said on Tuesday that Antasari’s trials had proven his involvement in the murder. Other supreme justices who handled the appeal included Mugihardjo and Suryadjaja.
Artidjo said Mugihardjo expressed a dissenting opinion in the court. He, however, did not go into details on the latter’s arguments.
The South Jakarta District Court previously sentenced Antasari to 18 years in prison on Feb. 11 for masterminding the murder of businessman Nasruddin Zulkarnaen. A high court upheld this decision on June 17.
Nasruddin, a director of state-owned pharmaceutical company PT Putra Rajawali Banjaran, was killed in a drive-by shooting near Modernland golf course in Tangerang, Banten on March 14 last year.
In less than two months, the police named him a suspect in the case and took him into custody. His arrest left the KPK with only four deputy leaders, two of whom, Chandra M. Hamzah and Bibit Samad Rianto, later also had a brush with law enforcement authorities.
The incrimination of the pair in an alleged case of extortion and abuse of power in October 2009 left the anticorruption commission understaffed and less effective.
On Tuesday, Artidjo said the appeal council had concluded that the lower courts had issued the appropriate rulings.
Antasari, he said, was proven to have conspired with former South Jakarta Police chief Sr. Comr. Williardi Wizard, businessman Sigit Haryo Wibisono and middleman Jerry Hermawan Lo in carrying out the murder of Nasruddin.
Ari Yusuf Amir, one of Antasari’s lawyers, told The Jakarta Post that he did not “expect much” from the appeal lodged with the Supreme Court in June.
“The country’s political scene today is not so different from when the district court made its ruling earlier this year,” he said, quickly adding that his team was still optimistic about the case.
He said he was currently preparing to file for a case review with the Supreme Court. “We have been preparing [to present] new evidence and [proof] of judges’ negligence in ruling against Antasari. We will file the request after the appointment of the new police chief and Attorney General,” he added.
Another lawyer for Antasari, M Assegaf, said he criticized Artidjo for “not being thorough and being insensitive”.
Artidjo said the court will immediately rule on the appeals made by other convicted persons in the case.
“The rulings for Sigit Haryo Wibisono and Williardi Wizard and Jerry Hermawan Lo will be issued separately, probably tomorrow or the day after that,” he added.
The appeal filed by Sigit and Williardi is currently handled by an appeal council presided by supreme justice Djoko Sarwoko. Artidjo said he headed a council that handled the appeal made by Jerry.
Sigit and Williardi were previously sentenced to respectively 15 and 12 years in prison while Jerry got five years. Their appeals were turned down by the Jakarta High Court.
