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outh Jakarta District Court judge Tatik Hadiyanti overturned on Wednesday a pretrial petition filed by former religious affairs minister Suryadharma Ali.

The judge ruled that pretrials had no authority to challenge a law enforcement institution'€™s decision to name someone a suspect.

Wednesday'€™s ruling '€” which rejected Suryadharma'€™s request to annul his graft suspect status that was handed down by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) over the haj fund case '€” contradicts an earlier pretrial ruling by another South Jakarta District Court judge, Sarpin Rizaldi, whose verdict in February annulled the suspect status of Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan in a bribery case and released him from a KPK investigation.

Sarpin allegedly bent the law by ruling on Budi'€™s suspect status, something that a pretrial mechanism is not meant to do.

Tatik argued on Wednesday that Articles 77 and 82 of the Criminal Law Procedures Code (KUHAP) limited the authority of the pretrial mechanism to the determination of the legality of an arrest or detention, the termination of an investigation or prosecution and a request for compensation and rehabilitation.

Tatik said the decision to name someone a suspect was not an issue to be overturned in a pretrial.

She also said that whether or not the KPK had enough evidence to prosecute Suryadharma was a matter to be settled in a primary court.

'€œA pretrial hearing should not address the essence of the investigation. It only looks at whether investigators have gone off track while conducting their probe,'€ Tatik said.

Joining Wednesday'€™s hearing, KPK legal division member Abdul Basir said the verdict had corrected Sarpin'€™s controversial ruling, which had encouraged other graft suspects to file such petitions to the court.

He hoped other judges would see Tatik'€™s pretrial ruling as solid legal precedence for issuing similar verdicts.

The KPK still has five other pretrial hearings underway and it has expressed concern over another 34 suspects that could file pretrial motions, further complicating matters.

'€œWe hope that in the future the country'€™s pretrial practices will return to the KUHAP, as guided by today'€™s verdict,'€ Basir said.

Suryadharma'€™s lawyer, Humphrey Djemat, said Tatik had failed to use her independence as a judge to make '€œlegal innovation'€ through her interpretation of Article 77 of the KUHAP, like Sarpin did.

'€œThe judge does not have the courage to exercise such discretion. Naming someone a suspect is clearly an act that robs a person of his basic human rights,'€ Humprey said.

Following the decision, the KPK is set to lock up Suryadharma after questioning him on Friday.

Acting KPK commissioner Johan Budi said the antigraft agency was speeding up investigations into graft suspects who were currently challenging their legal statuses at the court '€” including former energy and mineral resources minister Jero Wacik, who recently avoided KPK detention after skipping a questioning session Monday, using his pretrial hearing as an excuse.

Johan said Jero'€™s excuse was '€œirrelevant'€, adding that KPK investigators had the right to use force to bring Suryadharma and Jero to the antigraft agency for questioning to complete their dossiers in preparation for the upcoming trials.

'€œWe treat all suspects equally, if they skip questioning for irrelevant reasons then the law allows us to bring them with force,'€ Johan said.

Other suspects who are currently challenging their legal statuses at the court include the former head of the House of Representatives Commission VII overseeing energy, Sutan Bhatoegana, former Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) chairman Hadi Poernomo, former Makassar mayor Ilham Arief Sirajuddin and former director of state oil and gas operator Pertamina Suroso Atmo Martoyo.