The Constitutional Court’s ethics council is expected to deliver a verdict on Tuesday on its investigation into Chief Justice Anwar Usman in the face of mounting pressure to expel the embattled figure from the court, as petitioners and legal experts say they fear the worst for the judicial system if a lesser ruling materializes.

Anwar is under investigation by the council for his role in clearing a path for his nephew, Surakarta Mayor Gibran Rakabuming Raka, to run for vice president by ruling to lower the age of eligibility for presidential and vice presidential candidates under certain circumstances.

The council is expected to decide whether there is enough evidence to find the chief justice guilty of an ethics breach, after suggestions by the head of the panel that it was “not a difficult case to prove”.

At the center of the investigation are 21 complaints filed against the nine justices of the court. Most of these complaints revolved around Anwar, who swayed the decision of the bench in favor of adding an exception to the minimum age requirement for presidential candidates, just a week before the candidacy registration period came to a close.

Anwar had initially recused himself from ruling on several petitions seeking to change the age requirement but later rejoined and cast a deciding vote in a 5-4 tie-breaker to rule that prospective candidates who had served as elected regional leaders were not subject to the minimum age of 40 years old. A number of fellow justices switched sides to favor this position after the chief justice got involved.

The court decision shocked the nation, with many considering it a marker of lost integrity in the face of nepotism, a betrayal of the country’s reform agenda and a potential precursor to legal foul play in next year’s elections.

Read also: Chief justice faces ethics verdict, possible dismissal

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