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Supreme Court to probe judges in ‘dangdut’ singer case
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Dangdut singer Saiful Jamil smiles ahead of his verdict at the North Jakarta District Court. Judges declared Saiful guilty of child molestation and sentenced him to three years in prison. (Kompas.com /Andreas Lukas Altobeli)
T
he Supreme Court’s supervisory body will question judges who sentenced dangdut singer Saipul Jamil to three years in prison, following the arrest by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) of a court clerk accused of accepting a bribe from the singer’s lawyers.
Saipul was sentenced to three years in prison after he was found guilty of child molestation offenses.
Supreme Court spokesman Suhadi said his institution was waiting for an explanation from the KPK about the case. “The supervisory body will handle the case. We will hear the KPK’s explanation first,” Suhadi said as reported by kompas.com on Friday.
Ifa Sudewi, the presiding judge during Saipul’s trial, told the Supreme Court about the case soon after KPK investigators arrested North Jakarta District Court clerk Rohadi for allegedly accepting a bribe.
Hasoloan Sianturi, who was a member of the panel of judges during the trial, said Ifa had stressed that the members of the judging panel were innocent in the bribery case.
Ifa told the Supreme Court about the reasoning behind the three-year sentence handed down to Saipul, although prosecutors had demanded seven years’ imprisonment.
Hasoloan said the judges referred to Article 292 of the Child Protection Law, rather than the harsher Article 82, because they did not find proof of any element of violence, threat of violence, cheating or lies from the defendant, as alleged in the prosecutors’ indictment.
“We did not find any violence against the victim of the sexual abuse,” he said, adding that the maximum sentence for violators of Article 292 was five years in prison.
The KPK has named four people as bribery suspects in relation to the case: Rohadi, who is accused of accepting bribes from Saipul's associates in seeking a lenient sentence, along with two of Saipul’s lawyers, Berta Natalia and Kasman Sangaji, and Saipul’s brother, Samsul Hidayatullah. (bbn)
