TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) said 2017 has been the gloomiest year for bribery cases in justice institutions. Not only first-grade courts, the Constitutional Court (MK) and the Supreme Court (MA) were also implicated in cases that tarnish the Indonesian justice system.
ICW researcher for legal and judicial monitoring Lalola Ester said on Wednesday, that 2017's red marks began with the bribery case conducted by one of the MK judges Patrialis Akbar.
The MK is also facing charges of alleged violations of the code of ethics by Chairman Arief Hidayat. Arief allegedly lobbied politicians in the DPR Law Commission to defend his position as a judge of the Constitutional Court—allegedly in exchange for a judicial review of the MPR, DPR, DPD and DPRD (Act of MD3) law on the validity of legislators' right to inquire the KPK. Arief admitted that he had met with a number of members of the DPR Legal Commission.
"We believe that what Arief Hidayat had majorly stained the image of the Constitutional Court," he said.
Meanwhile, since October, two Supreme Court judges and one clerk were arrested by the KPK related to bribery cases.
The AGO also received a critical note from ICW, in relevance to its several prosecutors getting arrested in the KPK string operations.
Tika Azaria
