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Govt forms team to speed up, renew judicial reform
The government has formed a new judicial reform team following the KPK’s corruption probe into the country’s top court, albeit “a bit late”, according to one antigraft expert.
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The Supreme Court in Central Jakarta (Courtesy of the Supreme Court/-)
T
he government has created a new team to formulate a plan to accelerate and renew judicial reform efforts that the Supreme Court launched in the early 2000s, after the country’s top court was hit by a bribery case involving two of its justices.
Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD announced the formation of the new team in a statement released on Saturday.
The team is tasked with reviewing the ongoing reforms and formulating new policies for speeding them up, without threatening the judiciary’s constitutionally guaranteed independence.
The move follows President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo’s instruction on immediate judicial reform last September, when the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) opened a bribery investigation into Supreme Court Justice Sudrajad Dimyati.
Comprising four working groups, the new team will not only focus on reforming the judiciary and the criminal justice system, but also find more effective ways to curb and prevent corruption through agrarian and natural resources reforms, as well as closing legal loopholes.
"The team will formulate new policies that will also be delivered to the new administration after the 2024 general election for it to consider implementing,” Mahfud said in a statement on Saturday.
Sudrajad, a justice of the Supreme Court’s civil chamber, was arrested in September 2022 on allegations of accepting bribes. In exchange, he was to issue an appellate ruling favoring two businessmen in a civil case against KSP Intidana, a savings and loans cooperative based in Semarang.
