T

he Judicial Commission (KY) has recommended penalizing South Jakarta District Court judge Sarpin Rizaldi with a six month suspension because he has been found to have breached ethics in his controversial verdict on the pretrial of National Police deputy chairman Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan in February.

The KY revealed the conclusion of an investigation into Sarpin on Tuesday before delivering it to the Supreme Court, which supervises all judges across the country. If the court approves the KY'€™s recommendation, Sarpin will be forbidden from presiding over any court hearings for six months.

'€œA plenary session today agreed to issue a recommendation about the sanction. Our investigation confirmed that he violated a number of judicial principals including mistakenly quoting expert testimony in his verdict,'€œ KY deputy chairman Imam Anshori said on Tuesday night.

Imam said that the KY also found Sarpin guilty for his decision to receive legal assistance from lawyer Hotma Sitompoel, an act that violates a judge'€™s code of ethics. Sarpin used the lawyer'€™s assistance to file a defamation report against the KY to the National Police after the commission made a public statement saying that his verdict was controversial.

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), which had handled Budi'€™s bribery case, was later forced to transfer the three star police general'€™s probe to the Attorney General'€™s Office (AGO), after Sarpin declared that his suspect status was illegitimate. Budi'€™s case has since been dropped for good.