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awyer Haeruddin Masaro, who has often represented clients who could be considered justice collaborators in graft cases, still remembers clearly how some court registrars offered him their services to connect him with judges to win cases in court.

Without revealing their identities, Haeruddin described that those court registrars worked in a certain way in which they first identified their potential “clients,” especially lawyers, to offer their services to before moving to communicate with judges about the cases in question.

“If you accepted their offer you would become friends with them, but if you rejected them, as I did, you would become their enemy forever,” Haeruddin told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Haeruddin shared his experiences just as a court clerk was arrested for allegedly accepting bribes on Monday, putting the Supreme Court in the spotlight once again, particularly amid its ongoing reform, which has been criticized as sluggish.

After his rejection, Haeruddin found that court clerks, particularly at the South Jakarta District Court, often gave him what he called cynical looks when he attended trial sessions.

Haeruddin said he had reported such incidents to the Supreme Court and the Judicial Commission (KY) but his reports were never followed up.

“This proves that internal reform at the Supreme Court is nonsense. I once reported a judge for allegedly receiving bribes in a case I was assisting at the South Jakarta District Court, but the report was not followed up. I was never summoned as the one who filed the complaint,” Haeruddin said.

The arrest of a South Jakarta District Court registrar identified as Tarmizi for accepting Rp 425 million (US$31,856) in bribes believed to be paid to influence judges to reject a civil lawsuit against PT Aquamarine Divindo Inspection on Monday has added to the long list of clerks arrested for acting as middlemen in bribery cases.

Tarmizi was arrested with Aquamarine’s lawyer Akhmad Zaini, to whom Tarmizi had offered his services to influence judges at the South Jakarta District to reject Eastern Jason Fabrication Service Pte Ltd’s lawsuit. The Corruption Eradication Commission’s (KPK) investigators have yet to name any judges handling the case
as suspects.

At least six court clerks have been arrested by the KPK in different sting operations across the country between 2014 and 2017.

“It is impossible that a court clerk acted alone,” Haeruddin said.

Many have blamed the low salaries of court clerks, around Rp 4 million per month, for creating a motive for many court clerks to make money from cases filed at court.

Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) researcher Aradillah Caesar said, however, that such an argument was not sufficient to explain the string of arrests of court clerks in the past few years given that of them North Jakarta District Court clerk Rohadi owned billions of rupiah in various forms of assets such as cars.

Instead, it was the corrupt judiciary system that inspired court clerks to demand money from lawyers or suspects, Aradillah said.

“The string of arrests of court clerks by the KPK tells us something about how the internal reform carried out by the Supreme Court did not work. The Supreme Court has failed to supervise all judges and court clerks,” Aradillah said.

Meanwhile, Supreme Court spokesman and justice Suhadi lambasted Haeruddin for saying that the court never followed up any reports on judges and court clerks. “We always follow up on reports,” he said.

Suhadi said the Supreme Court would intensify monitoring of court clerks after Tarmizi’s arrest.