T

he arrest of a Supreme Court official in charge of handling civil suits and appeals for receiving bribes has again exposed rampant corrupt practices at the country'€™s highest judicial institution.

Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigators arrested on Friday night the head of the Supreme Court'€™s subdivision for civil lawsuits, appeals and judicial reviews, Andri Tristianto Sutrisna (ATS), who is accused of accepting a bribe at his private residence in Gading Serpong, Tangerang in Banten.

Andri was arrested after allegedly receiving from a middleman Rp 400 million (US$29,629) in cash, which KPK investigators seized along with a suitcase full of money of an undisclosed value.

As a result of the raid, KPK investigators also detained five other individuals, including the businessman who allegedly bribed Andri, Ichsan Suaidi (IS), and Ichsan'€™s lawyer, Awang Lazuardi Embat (ALE).

KPK investigators apprehended Ichsan separately in a sting operation at his apartment complex in Karet, South Jakarta, after getting a tip-off about the bribery attempt. Two security guards from Andri'€™s housing complex and Ichsan'€™s driver were also detained for questioning.

Ichsan allegedly bribed Andri through his lawyer Awang, who is accused of having delivered the money through the businessman'€™s driver, who worked as a courier in the scheme.

The KPK said the bribe was paid in exchange for having the Supreme Court delay issuing a cassation ruling in a graft case involving Ichsan, whose case the court had earlier rejected.

'€œAfter questioning and evaluating the case, we have decided to move forward with the second stage of the investigation, naming ATS, ALE and IS as suspects,'€ KPK spokesperson Yuyuk Andriati said during a press conference in South Jakarta on Saturday.

Friday'€™s arrest was a repeat of a similar incident that took place in 2013, in which a non-active Supreme Court staff member, Djodi Supratman, received a bribe from Mario Cornelio Bernardo, a legal practitioner from the law firm of Hotma Sitompoel and Associates.

Djodi received Rp 150 million from Mario through a middleman in exchange for rigging the cassation of a fraud case involving Hutomo Wijaya Ongowarsito.

The bribe was paid for the services of Djodi in convincing a justice presiding over the case to issue a ruling that would put Hutomo behind bars.

The Jakarta Corruption Court sentenced Jodi to two years in prison for the crime.

The arrest of Andri has sparked speculation over whether a non-judge, an administrative staff member, could intervene in a case or if he would have to be acting on behalf of a justice.

A Supreme Court spokesman, justice Suhadi, said it was unlikely Andri would have been able to intervene in an ongoing civil case as he had no authority to communicate with litigants.

'€œGiven his position, it is less likely he could meddle in the case. However, we do respect the KPK and believe its law enforcement is done extra cautiously and based on strong grounds,'€ Suhadi said.

Suhadi later defended the internal monitoring mechanism of the Supreme Court, which has long opposed the idea of judges being monitored by the Judicial Commission, saying the court carries out thorough internal monitoring on all staff members all the time.

The Supreme Court'€™s internal monitoring body oversees all staff members at the court, not only its justices, while the Judicial Commission only has the power to monitor judges.

Judicial Commission deputy head Farid Wadji was concerned with the latest development, saying the alleged actions that led to the arrest were a blow to the continued efforts to overhaul the graft-ridden judiciary.

'€œAll judiciary members should take a lesson from the incident. They must improve their professionalism and maintain integrity,'€ Farid said.

Suhadi, however, said the Supreme Court is currently pushing for greater transparency in line with a recent initiative ordered by President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo'€™s administration to develop an integrated database of legal cases that will be accessible via an online management system, which is expected to help prevent irregularities in prosecutions, as well as to improve coordination between law enforcers and the judiciary.

'€œThe Supreme Court will continue to improve our existing website-based ruling management to allow the public to access our rulings immediately after they are announced. Such transparency will prevent wrongdoings,'€ Suhadi said.