Former judge denies knowledge of letters

Former Constitutional Court Judge Arsyad Sanusi denied Tuesday in a hearing with the House of Representatives seeing the documents involved in the document forgery case in the 2009 election.

The case centers around the dispute on a seat in the House to represent the South Sulawesi electoral region between Dewi Yasin Limpo from the Hanura Party and Mestariyani Habibie from the Gerindra Party. It has implicated Democratic Party politician Andi Nurpati, who was then a member of the General Elections Committee (KPU).

A Constitutional Court letter dated Aug. 14, 2009, later discovered to be a bogus, made the KPU award Hanura the disputed seat during the Aug. 21, 2009 plenary session.

But on Sept. 11, 2009 the Constitutional Court sent a letter to the KPU with the authentic letter attached, stating that the forged letter was not what the court had ruled.

In the authentic letter, dated Aug. 17, 2009, the court ruled that Gerindra had won the case.

“I have never seen the fake letter [and] the real letter of [the Constitutional Court’s] answer,” Arsyad said, referring to the letters.

According to Arsyad, a staff at the Constitutional Court named Mashuri Hasan did once come to his apartment to ask on how to reply to the KPU's question to the court.

“Hasan came as a guest, he didn't get straight to the point. There were plenty of variations [on the subject of conversation, such as family matters. Then he sat down, brought out a laptop and said 'Pak, Dr Arifin [Zainal Arifin, the court's chief clerk] told me to answer KPU's letter to the Constitutional Court' “

Arsyad said that he then told Hasan to quote the verdict in the letter. “Don't change it, don't add [anything] to it,” he recalled.

He added that Dewi Yasin Limpo was also present at his house during the time. “My wife told me that Dewi Yasin Limpo also came,” he said.

Arsyad said he and Dewi had “emotional relations” with several of Dewi’s relatives being his acquaintances, and Dewi sometimes came to his house.

However, Dewi did not converse with him at the time Hasan came to his house to ask for advice.

Legislators also questioned Arsyad's daughter, Neshawati Arsyad, who claims she does not know Andi Nurpati.