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| New Supreme Court chief justice Hatta Ali, left, being congratulated by his predecessor Harifin A. Tumpa on Thursday. (Antara Photo/Widodo S. Jusuf) |
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Indonesia’s
newest Supreme Court chief has promised to improve the integrity of the
country’s judges.
Hatta Ali,
who was recently installed as the new Supreme Court chief justice, made his
pledge a day after an attack at the Bandung Anti-Corruption Court sent ripples
of concern through the judicial system.
Hatta said
his primary focus would be on solving cases and improving the caliber of
judges.
“I want men
of justice to stop playing with cases. No more trading cases,” he said,
admitting that it would not be easy to keep an eye on every judge in the
country but insisting he was upbeat about their prospects.
The new
chief justice said the growing backlog of Supreme Court cases would be cleared
but also pointed to a diminishing pile, which he called a sign of the court’s
improving performance.
Hatta took
his oath as the new Supreme Court chief on Thursday before President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono in a ceremony attended by cabinet ministers and other top
officials.
Asked to
comment about the United States’ offer to help secure Indonesia’s courts, Hatta
said there was nothing wrong with accepting the offer as long as there was no
hidden agenda.
“We will
also consider it if other countries make the same offer because our courts do
need security. In the West, they have [metal] detectors and some have
bullet-proof [glass],” he said.
He also
urged his peers to lower their suspicions about the offer of foreign aid,
saying he was convinced that improved security would not compromise the courts’
independence because judges had been taught not to tolerate any outside
intervention.
Poor
security in the nation’s courts leapt to the public’s attention after a man
apparently furious at corruption by civil servants launched a violent assault
on a graft suspect in Bandung on Wednesday.
The
40-year-old man, whom police identified as D.S., lashed out at a prosecutor who
had been charged with graft.
The
prosecutor, Sistoyo, was on his way out of the courtroom when he was approached
by D.S. The man slashed Sistoyo with a blade that he had concealed inside a
newspaper, yelling “Traitor!”
JG, Antara
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