Judicial taskforce also investigates Mochtar trial

The secretary of the Judicial Corruption Task Force, Denny Indrayana, says his team plans to investigate the recent acquittal Mochtar Mohammad by Bandung Corruption Court, checking for signs of foul play.

“One of the judges [presiding over the Mochtar trial], Ramlan Comel, was also once accused of graft. We need to check whether this can connect the dots,” Denny said Wednesday as quoted by tribunnews.com.

Denny added that he was concerned about the many acquittals granted by regional graft courts, which ran contrary to their establishment.

“The court has set a bad precedent by releasing three graft defendants already. So, we must also check this because we don’t want regional graft courts to become a safe haven for graft defendants,” he said.

To date, many institutions have expressed concerns over the verdict, and have said they were ready to assist in efforts to monitoring courts to help eradicate corruption.

Earlier, Bekasi Mayor Mochtar Muhammad was acquitted from four counts of graft, with the panel of judges citing a lack of evidence. The charges were filed by prosecutors from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).