T

he South Jakarta District Court on Monday ordered a two-week postponement of the pretrial hearing of graft suspect and Democratic Party cofounder Sutan Bhatoegana, providing a boon to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

Sole judge Asiadi Sembiring adjourned the court session until April 6 after the antigraft body failed to attend Monday'€™s hearing.

Sutan is currently challenging the KPK'€™s decision to name him a suspect in a high-profile bribery case involving the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry and the House of Representatives Commission VII overseeing energy and mineral resources, where Sutan once served as chairman and allegedly accepted billions of rupiah in bribes.

The adjournment has put his pretrial hearing at stake, as his trial for the graft case is to start soon.

Article 82 of the Criminal Law Procedures Code (KUHAP) stipulates that a pretrial hearing is invalid as soon as a district court indicts a graft suspect.

In addition to issuing the delay order, Asiadi rejected the request of Sutan'€™s lawyer Eggy Sudjana to order the KPK to temporarily release Sutan from its detention center so that he could attend his pretrial petition in the future.

'€œReleasing a suspect from detention center is not the authority of a pretrial judge and it is not mandatory for a judge to present the respective suspect during the pretrial hearing,'€ Asiadi stated.

Asiadi also lambasted Eggy for an apparent attempt to pull the wool over the judge'€™s eyes by submitting a completely different petition document to that previously registered.

'€œThis lawsuit document is not a revised one as you claimed; it is a completely new one from the one you registered earlier,'€ Asiadi chided Eggy.

In the pretrial petition originally registered at the court, Sutan claimed that the KPK'€™s investigation into him was illegitimate and that the KPK'€™s decision to detain him in February was marred with irregularities, but in the pretrial documents submitted to the court on Monday, his lawyer had added new material claiming that KPK investigators working on the case were not registered with the National Police.

Sutan is aiming to repeat the success of Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan, who in February secured a court order through a pretrial mechanism annulling his status in a bribery case and ordering the KPK to cease its investigation into him.

However, unlike in Budi'€™s case, Sutan'€™s investigation has been completed and the dossiers sent to prosecutors. His trial may begin within two weeks.

KPK legal division staffer Rasamala Aritonang denied that the KPK had skipped Monday'€™s hearing with the intention of voiding Sutan'€™s challenge to the KPK investigation.

'€œDon'€™t draw any conclusions from our absence. The KPK always follows the rules. We have four upcoming pretrial hearings. We need time to prepare our defense against their accusations,'€ Rasamala said on Monday.

Miko Susanto Ginting from the Center of Indonesian Legal and Policies Studies (PSHKI) argued that the KPK had the right to request more time to prepare its defense statements.

'€œTheir absence is justified by the existing law. Sutan'€™s pretrial hearing is void not because of the KPK'€™s absence but because his case has been sent to the court for trial,'€ Miko explained on Monday.

Eggy said his client could lose his chance to challenge the KPK investigation, but insisted that the judge had to go ahead with the pretrial hearing rather than complying with the KUHAP.

'€œThe South Jakarta District Court should act wisely. We all know that we filed the pretrial motion before my client'€™s dossier was sent to the court, so the South Jakarta District Court should prioritize the pretrial hearing,'€ Eggy told reporters after Monday'€™s hearing.