KPK’s Third Loss in Pre-trial Petitions

To date, there are three corruption suspects who filed for pre-trial motions and each have three different judges from the South Jakarta District Court that granted their petitions. The three suspects are:  Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan (former head of National Police's education and training division), Ilham Sirajuddin (Mayor of Makassar), and Hadi Poernomo (former Director General of Taxation).

The pretrial motion filed by Hadi Peoernomo on Tuesday, May 26, was granted by judge Haswadi. The media coverage on this issue mentioned that the judge was in favor of Hadi Poernomo and stipulated that the investigation conducted by KPK is illegitimate as the investigators do not come from law enforcement agencies.  Furthermore, judge Haswandi ordered to halt the investigation on Hadi Poernomo’s case.

The pretrial verdict received negative responses from anti-corruption activist as they argued that the judge has exceeded his authority by questioning the legality of KPK’s investigators. According to Article 43 and 45 of KPK Law, KPK can appoint and dismiss its investigators. The activists also argued that pre-trial should only examine procedure and administrative matters in naming a suspect, and not to examine evidence and authority of the investigators.

Judge Haswandi’s verdict can serve a “time bomb” to the effort of eradicating corruption. KPK could be facing with judicial review or civil law charges from the 371 corruption cases that were settled in 2004-2015. The convicted individuals could also utilize the verdict as new evidence to file for judicial review to the Supreme Court. It is now possible that “the KPK’s victims” will file for civil legal action against KPK. Another impact is that the named suspects whose cases have not been brought to trial can file for pre-trial motion to dismiss their status as suspects and free them from the charges held against them. 

On the other side the consistency of the judiciary rulings, including judge Haswandi’s previous rulings should be questioned, as previously the authority of KPK’s investigators was never questioned.   Judge Haswandi was the judge in the corruption cases against Anas Urbaingrum (former Chairman of Democratic Party) and Andi Malaranggeng (former Minister of Sport).

There are some alternative measurements that could be taken. The first one is that KPK can file for judicial review at the Supreme Court. The second one is to continue its investigation process on Hadi Poernomo’s case as according to the Constitutional Court; the ruling of pretrial court does not eliminate the criminal charge. The third one is that the Government can issue a Government Regulation to enhance the position of KPK’s investigators. The fourth one is that the Supreme Court could issue a policy to set the limit on what the judge can examine during in pre-trial court case.