T

he Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) said on Thursday that it would report South Jakarta District Court justice Yuningtyas Upiek to the Judicial Commission (KY) and the Supreme Court (MA) for allegedly violating the judicial code of ethics when handling the pretrial hearing of former Makassar mayor Ilham Arief Sirajuddin, who won a pretrial challenge to the KPK last week.

Acting KPK commissioner Johan Budi said the report would be submitted to the KY and MA on Friday, adding that the antigraft body would reveal the details of the alleged ethics violations by Yuningtyas, who was once reported to the KY for running an entertainment business as a side job, after Friday'€™s submission.

'€œToday'€™s meeting of KPK leaders agreed to write a letter to the MA and KY,'€ Johan told reporters during a press conference at the KPK headquarters on Thursday night.

The Jakarta Post has learned that the KPK has recorded a number of alleged ethics violations by Yuningtyas during the pretrial hearing, which ran from May 4 to 12.

The alleged violations include the judge'€™s decision to reject the KPK'€™s efforts to bring a key witness from Makassar to testify during the hearing to support the KPK'€™s argument that Ilham had committed corruption in a Rp 500 billion (US$38 million) project involving the city-run water company (PDAM), which caused total state losses of Rp 38 billion.

Another alleged violation was Yuningtyas'€™ rejection of the KPK'€™s proposal to present the original documents that would help confirm Ilham'€™s involvement in graft.

The KPK decided to bring the original documents as evidence after an earlier session of the pretrial hearing when the judge lambasted the KPK legal'€™s team for only presenting copies of documents in defense of its decision to name the former mayor a graft suspect.

The judge later rejected the original documents, arguing that the evidence should have been presented earlier.

As a result, in her final ruling on Ilham'€™s pretrial plea, Yuningtyas declared the KPK'€™s investigation into Ilham was illegitimate because the KPK had failed to show the original documents during the hearing.

The decision also instructed the antigraft body to stop investigating Ilham in the PDAM graft case.

The judge said the KPK should have presented original documents, not copies, since copies could not be used to defend the KPK'€™s charges against Ilham.

In addition to reporting Yuningtyas Johan said that KPK investigators would soon rename Ilham a suspect in the case after studying the judge'€™s decision thoroughly, adding that the KPK would also challenge the ruling in the case at the MA.

Contacted separately, KY commissioner Taufiqurrohman Syahuri encouraged the antigraft body to file the report as soon as possible to his office for further follow up.

'€œThe KY is ready to receive the KPK'€™s report,'€ said Taufiqurrohman.

The commissioner also confirmed that Yuningtyas was once reported to the KY, which investigates all reports of violations of the code of ethics by judges, for her entertainment business in Bali.

KY deputy chairman Imam Anshori said the KY had completed its investigation into the judge in the past.

'€œShe was once reported to the KY. The investigation at that time found that she had not violated any principles in the judge'€™s code of ethics,'€ Imam said.

Imam declined to answer the Post'€™s question as to whether there were any other reports against Yuningtyas apart from the entertainment side job case.