Out of court settlement not a good idea: Expert

Instead of having an out-of-court settlement, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is being urged
to set up an independent team to investigate National Police and Attorney General’s Office officials who allegedly initiated the investigation into false charges of bribery, extortion and power abuse against suspended Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputies Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah.

“The team must be able to find out who initiated the investigation. Find them and demand them to take responsibility,” the University of Indonesia (UI) expert on police, Bambang Widodo Umar, told The Jakarta Post here on Monday.

“If the inquiries recommend the dismissal of National Police chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri and Attorney General Hendarman Supandji, Yudhoyono should not object to that,” he said

“The out of court settlement proposal has, like it or not, shown that the investigation is useless. The next step should be reforming the police force and the AGO by replacing those deemed responsible for the case,” Bambang said.

In a long-awaited speech on his ruling on the case late Monday, Yudhoyono said, “The better solution and option for the police and the AGO [would be to] not take the case to court but still consider the principles of justice.

“However, immediate efforts to correct and improve the three institutions [police, AGO and KPK] are necessary,” he said.

On Sunday, Yudhoyono said the investigations into the KPK deputies should be dropped and the case should be settled out of court.

The President has been in the spotlight since his name was mentioned in wiretapped conversations played at the Constitutional Court’s hearing. The recordings — of Anggodo Widjojo, brother of fugitive graft suspect Anggoro Widjojo, and top prosecutors among others — revealed a plot to frame Bibit and Chandra. Since then, the public has demanded that the President order the police and the AGO to drop the case against Bibit and Chandra.

The Indonesian Corruption Watch’s (ICW) Danang Widoyoko suggested the President should extend the service of the presidential fact-finding team, saying it was the only proper instrument that could be used to initiate a fair and independent investigation into these officials.

“We can no longer depend on the police and AGO’s internal affairs departments because they have always struggled to hold independent and impartial investigations,” he said.

Deputy Attorney General for special crimes, Marwan Effendy, acknowledged the AGO would obey the President’s decision.

“Whatever the decision is, we will be loyal to the President,” he said.

A legal expert from the Jakarta Muhammadiyah University, Chaerul Huda, said an out-of-court settlement would only jeopardize the entire judicial process.

“In my opinion, SBY should give the legal process a chance. Let the prosecutors bring the case to court and let us see whether a panel of judges cast the same judgment as those who support the prosecution of the pair,” he said.

Chaerul said if Bibit and Chandra were confident of being found innocent it should be not a problem for them to face trial.

UI’s Maswadi Rauf slammed the President, saying he had set a bad precedent by mixing legal problems with politics.

“This settlement might work for now but it doesn’t address the real problems in the case. We will never know who is right and wrong in this case. It actually endangers our attempt to enforce the law in the future,” he said.



http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/11/24/out-court-settlement-not-a-good-idea-expert.html