As controversy surrounding criminal allegations against two Judicial Commission members heats up, the government says it will mediate between conflicting parties to end the case in peace
s controversy surrounding criminal allegations against two Judicial Commission members heats up, the government says it will mediate between conflicting parties to end the case in peace.
Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno said on Wednesday that he would try to persuade judge Sarpin Rizaldi to drop his report on the two commission members, Suparman Marzuki and Taufiqurrohman Syahuri, who the judge has accused of defaming him in public.
The police have named Suparman and Taufiqurrohman suspects in the case.
'Hopefully I can meet with him [Sarpin] before Idul Fitri,' Tedjo said after an event at the State Palace on Wednesday. 'I am trying to mediate so there won't be an uproar.'
Tedjo's initiative is in line with Jokowi's instruction for all parties to not create another rift between law enforcement institutions.
According to Tedjo, he has also informed National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti and police detective chief Comr. Gen. Budi Waseso about the issue.
'The police say that they carry out investigations based on the legal process. Should the person who filed the report [Sarpin] withdraw [his lawsuit], [the case] will be stopped. That's all; the police are professional,' Tedjo said.
Commission chairman Suparman and commissioner Taufiqurrohman were reported by Sarpin in March after the two criticized the judge's controversial decision to annul the suspect status of then-police chief candidate Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan in a pretrial hearing in February.
Shortly after the ruling was made in favor of Budi, who now holds the deputy police chief position, the commission recommended that the Supreme Court, which supervises all judges across the country, impose six months non-hearing status on Sarpin for allegedly violating ethics in the case.
Responding to Tedjo's plan, one of Sarpin's lawyers, Dion Pongkor, said that Sarpin wanted to assess the situation first before attending the planned mediation session with the commission.
'Pak Sarpin said that he wanted to know the reasons behind the push to conduct the mediation, whether it was for the greater good and so long as it doesn't violate Pak Sarpin's personal rights,' he told The Jakarta Post.
Dion explained that Sarpin had felt it was within his rights to report the two commissioners because they had criticized him before he delivered the ruling on Budi's case.
The police investigation into Suparman and Taufiqurrohman has drawn public ire, with several activists and public figures calling on President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo and National Police chief Badrodin to dismiss detective division chief Waseso from his current post.
The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), a human rights NGO, said it was evident that Waseso, a close acquaintance of Budi, had a bias against those he had recently named suspects, who had either criticized the police or were fierce supporters of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).
'The people [who had recently been named suspects] were all of those who criticized the National Police or supported the KPK,' he said.
Since he was inaugurated as detective division chief in January, suspended KPK commissioners Abraham Samad and Bambang Widjojanto have both been named suspects for separate crimes, alongside top KPK investigator Novel Baswedan.
The country's second-largest Muslim organization, Muhammadiyah, also called on Jokowi to sack Waseso following a statement the organization deemed as offensive toward Muhammadiyah chairman Ahmad Syafi'i Maarif, who had vocally criticized the detective division chief, as reported previously by a number of media outlets.
Badrodin defended his subordinate's action, claiming that Waseso had been working according to the rules.
'The police already have a set of guidelines on how to work, how to judge an officer's performance. This is all written down. We are not a civil society group where they lack guidelines and are able to revoke someone's position willy-nilly,' he told reporters on Wednesday at the Jakarta Police headquarters in South Jakarta.
In relation to the cases against the two commissioners, Badrodin said that Sarpin had every right to report his accusations.
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