Arief Hidayat Appointed Constitutional Court Chief

Jakarta Globe, Jan 12, 2015

Arief Hidayat will lead Indonesia's Constitutional Court until 2017.
(Antara Photo/Wahyu Putro A.)

Jakarta. Arief Hidayat, a law professor, was on Monday appointed the new chief justice of Indonesia’s troubled Constitutional Court.

Arief, who only replaced former chief Mahfud M.D. to become a Constitutional Court justice in 2013, will take over the top role from Hamdan Zoelva, whose leadership term ended on Jan. 7.

He was appointed chief justice at a plenary meeting between the nine court justices in Jakarta on Monday, news portal Kompas.com reported. He will lead the court until 2017.

Arief, born in 1956, was head of the masters program of law at Diponegoro University in Semarang, Central Java, before he was appointed to Indonesia’s top court. He earned his doctorate degree from the same university in 2006.

The new chief justice will have a tough job rebuilding faith in Indonesia’s Constitutional Court, the reputation of which was badly damaged when former Chief Justice Akil Mochtar was convicted of corruption last year.

The Jakarta Anti-Corruption Court sentenced Akil to life in prison. He was found guilty of having sold off Indonesia’s powerful local government seats to corrupt politicians.