T

he Corruption Eradication Corruption (KPK) might have breathed a, temporary, sigh of relief on Tuesday after the South Jakarta District Court rejected a pretrial petition filed by former energy and minerals Jero Wacik, the last in a series of attempts by graft suspects to challenge their status by means of pre-trial hearings.

Tuesday'€™s ruling followed three previous decisions rejecting petitions by KPK graft suspects. The court ruled that the Criminal Law Procedures Code (KUHAP) restricted the authority of the pretrial mechanism to determining the legality of an arrest or detention, terminating an investigation or prosecution, or granting a request for compensation and rehabilitation.

'€œThe positive law principle we abide by in Indonesia does not require judges to follow rulings made by other judges as claimed by the plaintiff [Jero], thus, the petition is rejected,'€ sole judge Sihar Purba explained at the South Jakarta court on Tuesday.

But hours later, the Constitutional Court passed revisions to the law, allowing suspect status to be determined in a pretrial hearing. Delivering its ruling a panel of justices at the court decided that KUHAP'€™s Article 77, which determines matters suitable for pretrial petitions, included challenges to suspect status.

'€œ[False procedure in investigation] was previously limited to arrest, detention, investigation and prosecution. But now, it has developed to other matters. One of them is '€˜an investigator naming a suspect'€™,'€ said justice Anwar Usman delivering the decision.

The court also revised Article 1 point 14, Article 17 and Article 21 point 1, requiring investigators to collect two items of evidence before naming someone a suspect. Previously, the articles did not specify a minimum number of items of evidence that an investigator should collect before naming a suspect.

In February the South Jakarta court controversially approved Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan'€™s pretrial petition when judge Sarpin Rizaldi annulled Budi'€™s status as a graft suspect. Following this decision seven other graft suspects, including Jero, followed in Budi'€™s footsteps, but they were not as fortunate as Budi, who was recently sworn in as deputy National Police chief.

The court rejected pretrial pleas filed by Democratic Party cofounder Sutan Bhatoegana, former religious affairs minister Suryadharma Ali as well as former director of state oil and gas operator Pertamina, Suroso Atmo Martoyo.

Three other plaintiffs, former Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) chairman Hadi Poernomo, former Makassar mayor Ilham Arief Sirajuddin, and Siti Tarwiyah, who is reportedly a relative of suspended Bangkalan regent Fuad Amin, withdrew their pretrial petitions after seeing the court rejecting Sutan, Suryadharma and Suroso'€™s petitions.

Jero filed his pretrial petition to challenge the KPK'€™s decision to name him a suspect in two separate extortion cases in his capacity as former energy and mineral energy minister as well as former culture and tourism minister.

In addition to those cases, Jero allegedly instructed his subordinates at the energy ministry to collect a total of Rp 9.9 billion (US$763,779) in under-the-table money from 2011 to 2013. When serving as culture and tourism minister, he allegedly committed the same offense by collecting a total of Rp 7 billion during the period 2008-2011.

KPK legal division member Rasamala Aritonang said that Jero'€™s pretrial ruling should be a lesson to other graft suspects not to waste their time attempting the same thing in the future.

'€œWe hope that today'€™s ruling will end the pretrial drama that has so far cost us a lot in terms of time and energy. We expect no more pretrial hearings because we want to focus on doing other more important things at the KPK,'€ Rasamala said.