T

he Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has called on the South Jakarta District Court to rearrange schedules for six pretrial cases that challenge the antigraft body'€™s decision on the plaintiffs'€™ suspect status for six separate cases.

Overwhelmed with the congested schedule of hearings that will swamp KPK lawyers over the next two weeks, its legal team asked the court for more time to prepare.

On Monday, the KPK will face three separate pretrial hearings scheduled at the exact same time, 9 a.m., in three different rooms at the South Jakarta District Court. On April 6, the KPK team will face the same schedule yet again, three pretrial hearings in three separate rooms all beginning at 9 a.m.

KPK legal bureau head Catharina M. Girsang said on Sunday that such a hectic schedule unfairly burdened the antigraft body because it would be impossible for its legal experts to present defenses in three separate hearings at the same time.

'€œWhen it comes to experts, we have the same experts [for all the cases] and they certainly cannot attend three different hearings at once,'€ Catharina told The Jakarta Post.

Since a pretrial hearing takes one week to finish, she suggested that the South Jakarta District Court schedule one hearing per week, adding that there was no need to rush pretrial hearings, as such hearings only challenged the administrative procedures of ongoing investigations.

'€œWe have expressed our concerns to the court and we hope that it will issue a fair schedule,'€ Catharina said, adding that the KPK team would attend the pretrial hearing of graft suspect and former religious affairs minister Suryadharma Ali on Monday, but would likely ask for the postponement of the hearings on former Supreme Audit Agency chief Hadi Poernomo and former director of state oil and gas operator Pertamina, Suroso Atmo Martoyo.

Catharina said the South Jakarta District Court had asked the KPK to attend the pretrial hearings of Democratic Party cofounder Sutan Bhatoegana and former Makassar mayor Ilham Arief Sirajuddin, both graft suspect, along with a hearing for another suspect in a Bangkalan regency graft case on April 6.

The graft suspects followed the footsteps of former National Police chief candidate Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan, who secured a pretrial verdict ordering the KPK to stop investigating his bribery case, although the Criminal Law Procedures Code does not authorize a pretrial to examine someone'€™s legal status.

Legal experts called Budi'€™s pretrial verdict controversial and said it caused chaos in the country'€™s legal system as it offered precedence for other graft suspects to challenge their legal status.

Suryadharma'€™s lawyer, Andreas Nahot Silitonga, said he was confident the South Jakarta District Court would issue a similar ruling for his client, who is a suspect in a case on the misuse of the haj fund worth Rp 1 trillion (US$76 million).

Andreas earlier requested the KPK temporarily freeze the haj probe until the court issued its final ruling on Suryadharma'€™s pretrial, but to no avail.

'€œThe court will likely order the KPK to stop the investigation and probably will declare Suryadharma'€™s suspect status illegitimate. It is useless for the KPK to continue the investigation as we are sure that we will win the pretrial hearing,'€ he said.

Catharina said the KPK team was optimistic about winning the hearings, as Sutan, Suryadharma, Suroso and Hadi met the criteria as state officials who could be investigated by the KPK.

The South Jakarta District Court had said the KPK'€™s decision to send Sutan'€™s dossier to the Jakarta Corruption Court had voided the politician'€™s pretrial petition, but the court would have to conduct a hearing on April 6 to officially rule that the hearing could not be continued.