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Supreme court backs Sarpin in Budi ruling

The Supreme Court has defended South Jakarta District Court judge Sarpin Rizaldi following the Judicial Commission’s recommendation that the judge be sanctioned for ethics violations in a controversial pretrial ruling earlier this year

Haeril Halim (The Jakarta Post)
Thu, July 2, 2015

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Supreme court backs Sarpin in Budi ruling

T

he Supreme Court has defended South Jakarta District Court judge Sarpin Rizaldi following the Judicial Commission'€™s recommendation that the judge be sanctioned for ethics violations in a controversial pretrial ruling earlier this year.

The recommendation related to a pretrial ruling that effectively ended the Corruption Eradication Commission'€™s (KPK) investigation into the National Police'€™s Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan. The Judicial Commission found that Sarpin falsely quoted expert testimony in his ruling and received free legal assistance from lawyer Hotma Sitompul.

Sarpin used the lawyer'€™s assistance to file a defamation report against the commission with the National Police after it made a public statement saying that his ruling in the Budi case was controversial.

Supreme Court spokesman Suhadi, who is also a justice, said the commission had gone beyond its remit by citing Sarpin'€™s misquoting of a witness. '€œWe have yet to receive the official recommendation on the sanction. However, the way a judge quotes an expert in his ruling has nothing to do with the Judicial Commission because it only deals with ethical matters,'€ Suhadi told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Suhadi added that as a citizen Sarpin had the right to be accompanied by a lawyer in any legal matters.

Asked whether the Supreme Court, which oversees judges across the country, would move to impose a six-month suspension on Sarpin as recommended by the commission, Suhadi said the court chief justice Hatta Ali would first have to examine recommendation.

'€œThe Supreme Court will analyze the recommendation to ascertain whether it is correct then the court chief will make a final decision,'€ Suhadi said, adding that the court would not sanction Sarpin if it disagreed with the recommendation.

Despite the fact that Sarpin'€™s ruling in Budi'€™s pretrial hearing was marred by irregularities as claimed by legal experts and former Supreme Court justices, the court said it did not launch any investigation into Sarpin because it received no report that could support the launching of an investigation.

The police later dropped the investigation into Budi, who is now the deputy National Police chief.

The Constitutional Court has since made it part of the remit of a pretrial hearing to examine criminal allegations against a suspect, which had not been the case at the time of Budi'€™s hearing in February.

Separately, Judicial Commission deputy chairman Imam Anshori said that if the Supreme Court had any objection or second opinion about the recommendation, the commission would be ready to discuss it. '€œIf the Supreme Court has no objection to the recommendation then it must comply with it, but if it has something to argue about then the commission is open to a joint forum to examine the recommended sanction,'€ Imam said on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, acting KPK commissioner Johan Budi said the KPK would not use the Judicial Commission ruling to file a case review challenging Sarpin'€™s ruling to the Supreme Court to open the way to taking back Budi'€™s case from the National Police. '€œThe Judicial Commission'€™s ruling will not change anything regarding the KPK'€™s decision to transfer Budi'€™s case to the AGO. The transfer indicated that the KPK no longer had a connection to the case,'€ he said.

Following the case the KPK suffered two further defeats in pretrial hearings.

In May, the South Jakarta District Court released former Makassar mayor Ilham Arief Sirajuddin and former Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) chief Hadi Poernomo from two separate high-profile graft investigations.

In contrast to Budi, the KPK later reopened an investigation into Ilham. With regard to Hadi, the KPK has filed a case review with the Supreme Court challenging his pretrial decision.


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