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Activists disappointed with acquittal, lighter sentencing for Supreme Court judges
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Supreme Court building in Jakarta. (kompas.com/Dhoni Setiawan)
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ntigraft activists have expressed disappointment over the acquittal of one Supreme Court judge and the reduced prison sentence for another in a bribery case that has scarred the country's highest court’s integrity.
Bandung Corruption Court in West Java on Tuesday acquitted Gazalba Saleh, a justice of the Supreme Court’s criminal chamber, of all bribery charges, citing insufficient evidence. Prosecutors from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), who had demanded Gazalba be sentenced to 11 years in prison in the bribery case tried at a lower court, were quick to state they would consider an appeal against the acquittal at the Supreme Court itself.
Gazalba was accused of accepting bribes from a businessman in exchange for convicting an executive of KSP Intidana, a savings and loans cooperative based in Semarang, Central Java, over falsifying documents. He was caught, apparently red handed, along with his assistant Prasetio Nugroho and two other individuals allegedly receiving bribes from Heryanto Tanaka, through his two lawyers, and was arrested by the KPK in December last year.
During the trial, KPK prosecutors presented 19 witnesses and hundreds of pieces of evidence against Gazalba, including S$20,000 (US$14,920) in cash allegedly used to bribe him. But Gazalba denied ever using the money and his assistant Prasetio testified that he used all of the money for himself.
Gazalba's acquittal came only a few hours after another justice involved in the Intidana bribery case, Sudrajad Dimyati of the Supreme Court’s civil chamber, won an appeal at the Bandung High Court and got his sentence reduced from eight to seven years in prison.
Sudrajad was convicted of accepting bribes in exchange for issuing an appellate ruling favoring Heryanto and another businessman in a civil case against Intidana.
The businessmen were Intidana members who were trying to regain the money they had invested after the cooperative declared bankruptcy for failing to fulfill its obligations to return the savings of its members, which amounted to nearly Rp 1 trillion ($63.99 million). They lost the case at the Semarang Commercial Court but won an appeal at the Supreme Court.
