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Legal groups demand ethics probe into Constitutional Court chief justice following ruling
Critics have accused Constitutional Court Chief Justice Anwar Usman of violating the justices' ethics code for not recusing himself from a judicial review case seeking to change the eligibility requirements for presidential and vice-presidential candidates.
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Constitutional Court Chief Justice Anwar Usman presides over a hearing on June 15, 2023, when the court read out its decision to pass the buck to the legislature to determine the voting system for an election. (Antara/Rivan Awal Lingga)
Lawyers and legal activists have filed reports with the Constitutional Court demanding an ethics probe into Chief Justice Anwar Usman following the controversial court ruling that cleared the way for Surakarta Mayor Gibran Rakabuming Raka, Anwar’s nephew by marriage, to run in the upcoming presidential election.
The court ruled on Monday that candidates under the age of 40 who had experience as elected officials could run in presidential elections. The ruling paved way for Gibran, the eldest son of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who is Anwar’s brother-in-law, to run in the 2024 race.
Critics slammed the court’s decision, calling it politically driven and marred by Anwar’s conflict of interest.
On Wednesday, a coalition of lawyers calling itself the Nusantara Lawyers Movement was among the first to file a request for an investigation into the chief justice.
“We hope that Anwar will be dismissed because the damage caused by the alleged ethics violation is very serious. It has undermined public faith in the court,” said Petrus Selestinus, a representative of the lawyer group after filing the report at the court on Wednesday afternoon.
Civil group the Center for Indonesian Law and Policy Studies (PSHK) was also planning to submit a similar report that called for an investigation into Anwar by the court’s ethics council.
Anwar, who was present during the justices’ decision meeting for the controversial ruling, had allegedly violated the principle of impartiality mandated in a 2006 Constitutional Court regulation on the code of ethics and conduct guidelines for court judges, said PSHK deputy executive director Fajri Nursyamsi.
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