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judicial ethics panel in Jakarta has suspended a judge stationed in Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan, for two years after he was proven to have received Rp 20 million (about 20,000) from a lawyer.

The panel ruled on Wednesday that Nuril Huda, the head of Pangkalan Bun District Court, was guilty of an ethics breach and is banned from handling cases for two years.

The panel consisted of Judicial Commission members Suparman, Eman Suparman, Ibrahim and Jaja Ahmad Jayus and Supreme Court justices Komariah E. Sapardjaja, Gayus Lumbuun and Suhadi.

The punishment is lighter than the Judicial Commission’s recommendation that he be dismissed for allegedly taking a bribe.

In his defense, Nuril told the panel that the Central Kalimantan High Court head ordered him to gather funds for the development of Palangkaraya Corruption Court, which apparently had been launched ceremonially in October 2011.

“In fact it has nothing to do with the case I was handling,” he said.

In late 2012, the Judicial Commission received a report that Nuril asked for money from a lawyer identified as Edy Nata. Edy is the lawyer from one of the parties involved in a land dispute trial at the court. The commission also received a video depicting the alleged bribery.

Nuril claimed he did not know the lawyer had a case in his court, saying that the lawyer told him that the move was sincere.

He argued that the video could not be used as evidence as the lawyer who accused him was not a law enforcer.

The panel said that although he was not proven to have received a bribe, he was in the wrong for receiving money from a lawyer. “As a district court head, you are not responsible for gathering funds, nor revealing the need for funds to those people who have connection to a case,” commissioner Eman Suparman said during the hearing.

Nuril admitted that he used around Rp 200,000 or Rp 300,000 for his own personal expenses as he once “had not enough money”.

Choky Ramadhan from the Indonesian Judicial Watch Society (Mappi), a judicial watchdog, slammed the panel for being too lenient on Nuril. “Inadequate evidence cannot be used as a reason. They can investigate this further,” he said. “And they are supposed to bring this into the criminal area instead of merely before an ethics hearing.”

He said the Judicial Commission once cooperated with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to probe a bribery case involving Semarang Corruption Court ad hoc judge Kartini Marpaung.

Commission spokesman Asep Rahmat Fajar defended the council’s ruling, saying that it was made based on various considerations.

“Basically, the ethics hearing is a place for a judge to defend him or herself,” he said.

The commission had also failed to question the Central Kalimantan High Court head when they investigated the case, saying that it already stopped at Nuril.

“There will be no further investigation as the material is not enough [to pin down the high court head],” Suparman told The Jakarta Post.