T

he West Sumatra Police will process a defamation report filed by South Jakarta District Court judge Sarpin Rizaldi against Andalas University State Administrative Law School professors Charles Simabura and Feri Amsari.

'€œIt is his right to file the report; the police cannot refuse [the report],'€ West Sumatra Police chief Brig. Gen. Bambang Sri Herwanto said, as quoted by Antara news agency on Saturday.

Bambang said the police would process the report in accordance with standard procedures. '€œWe will decide whether to proceed with the case,'€ he said.

The judge has been denounced for a pretrial decision to drop the case against former National Police chief candidate Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan, who had been named a suspect in a corruption case by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) earlier this month.

Sarpin filed a defamation report late Friday afternoon after his younger brother, Alfikri Mukhlis, and the customary chief of 2X11 Kayu Tanam district, Padang Pariaman, attempted to file a police report against the professors on Thursday.

The report was filed in response to statements made by the professors at an anticorruption rally in Padang on Feb. 16, which were then used as quotes in a Padang Ekspres article published the next day titled '€œSarpin exiled through customary law'€.

Alfikri, Sarpin'€™s brother, said the claim was untrue, because under Minangkabau custom, only a clan uncle can exile a person after consultation.

Separately, Charles said Sarpin'€™s family had misinterpreted the article, which said that Sarpin had been '€œexiled'€ from the university'€™s law school, where he is an alumnus, not from the Minangkabau community.

'€œI cannot accept this; it has spread through social media, all over the globe [that I have been exiled from the community]. It'€™s really offensive,'€ Sarpin told reporters on Friday.

Sarpin said his decision on the pretrial hearing was made based on the evidence presented and that it fell within the bounds of his authority.

'€œI am a judge and I am not stupid. If I was stupid I would not have been first among my peers to graduate from Andalas University in 1982,'€ Sarpin said.

In a pretrial hearing, Sarpin annulled the suspect status slapped on Budi by the KPK for bribery allegations. While the Criminal Code does not grant judges the authority to hold pretrial hearings to determine a suspect'€™s status, Sarpin said the law supported him.

Following his decision, activists filed reports against Sarpin with the Supreme Court, alleging he violated ethics and overstepped his authority in challenging the KPK'€™s decision.