T

he Judicial Commission (KY) is expediting its probe into Supreme Court (MA) justice Timur Manurung, who is alleged to have breached the judges'€™ code of ethics by meeting with a graft suspect and president director of property developer PT Sentul City, Cahyadi Kumala.

'€œThe investigation is our top priority because it is related to a Supreme Court justice,'€ KY commissioner Imam Anshori told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Imam pledged that the probe into Timur'€™s alleged breach of the ethics code would be completed within two months.

Imam, who said he was not authorized to reveal details of individuals being investigated by the KY, said that meeting with suspects in graft cases was a serious violation that could result in
dismissal.

'€œThere were four meetings, and we don'€™t know yet a deal was struck during them. If a Supreme Court justice meets with an individual implicated in graft then there is a possibility that the justice will make a deal with the individual when he files an appeal or case review. That'€™s why we want to learn more about the motivation behind the meetings,'€ Imam said.

According to the code of conduct for judges established by the KY and the MA in 2006, an MK justice is prohibited from meeting with lawyers, prosecutors, witnesses, suspects and other parties connected to an ongoing investigation.

The Post learned that Cahyadi, who was a witness in a graft case when the meetings are said to have taken place, met with Timur to allegedly talk about safeguarding his cassation petition at the MA should he be convicted by the Jakarta Corruption Court for bribery.

Right after naming Cahyadi a suspect of bribery and of trying to block the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigation by orchestrating a scheme to prevent him from being implicated in the case, the KPK summoned Timur to confirm his meetings with Cahyadi.

'€œWe will question the MA justice after we have gathered evidence and testimonies from other parties,'€ Imam said.

After concluding its probe, the KY is expected to issue a recommendation on what the MA should do about Timur.

Separately, Cahyadi'€™s lawyer, Rudy Alfonso, confirmed that his client had met with Timur, but he denied it was four times.

'€œAt the meeting they did not discuss the graft case being handled by the KPK. There was nothing wrong with them meeting because my client was only a witness in the case and not a suspect. It was just a friendly meeting between two members of the same church congregation,'€ Rudy told the Post on Thursday.

Meanwhile, MA spokesman Suhadi said he had yet to receive details about the ongoing KY investigation.

'€œThe Supreme Court'€™s supervisory board will later study any recommendation by the KY after the investigation is concluded,'€ Suhadi said.

Earlier, Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) data revealed that of the 22 graft cases Timur presided over between January and June last year, he had acquitted six of the defendants.

In the wake of the findings, ICW urged the Judicial Commission to investigate the six acquittals.