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Supreme Court faces heavy blow after justice named bribery suspect
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The Supreme Court building in Central Jakarta. (Courtesy of the Supreme Court/-)
T
he recent arrest of Supreme Court justice Sudrajad Dimyati by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) for alleged bribery has exposed the failure of the court in curbing judicial corruption.
Sudrajad was named a suspect early on Friday for allegedly taking bribes relating to a civil case handled by the Supreme Court, along with nine other people following a series of KPK raids in Jakarta and Semarang in Central Java.
The nine other suspects are clerk Elly Tri Pangestu and a number of staff members of the top court’s registry office, as well as two businessmen – who filed a cassation appeal against a Semarang commercial court ruling in a case pertaining to savings and lending cooperative KSP Intidana – and their two lawyers.
Sudrajat turned himself into the KPK later that day after he met with Supreme Court leaders who asked him to be cooperative with the investigators. He is now in KPK custody.
Sudrajad had allegedly accepted Rp 800 million (US$52,937) in bribes in return for a Supreme Court cassation ruling favoring businessmen Ivan Dwi Kusuma Sujanto and Heryanto Tanaka, who were involved in the civil case battle against Intidana.
Both businessmen were previously members of a Semarang-based cooperative that sought a bankruptcy ruling against Intidana this year after it failed to fulfill its obligations to return the savings of its members, which had reached nearly Rp 1 trillion. They lost the case at the Semarang Commercial Court but won the appeal at the Supreme Court.
Through their lawyers, Ivan and Heryanto allegedly gave the Supreme Court clerk and workers S$202,000 (US$ 141,266) in bribes – part of which was channeled to Sudrajad.
