Supreme Court Denounced For Promoting Graft Tainted Judge

Bandarlampung, Sept 30 (Antara) - The Bandarlampung Legal Aid Institute (LBH) questioned the decision of the Supreme Court promoting a graft tainted judge. Judge Chaidir, who has been reprimanded for asking money from Arthalyta Suryani (Ayin), a business woman later jailed for involvement in a high profile graft case, has been given a promotion as new deputy chairman of the Tanjungkarang high court in Lampung. "We denounce and condemn the decision naming Chaidir deputy chairman of the high court in Lampung, while we all know that Chaidir had been found guilty offending ethical code," Wahrul Fauzi Silalahi, the director of the Bandarlampung LBH branch on Sunday. Wahrul said Chaidir was removed from his former position as chairman of the West Jakarta district court for the offense in 2008, but now the Supreme Court itself decided to give Chaidir a higher position. "Why should a judge whose background has been tainted with bribery be promoted to a higher position," he queried. He said law courts in Lampung need to improve their credibility as a clean agency. He said a few months earlier the Tanjungkarang district court gave a controversial non guilty verdict to suspects in two corruption cases and now the Supreme Court came up with a decision which would not contribute to improving the credibility. The decision of the Supreme Court would reduce the public confidence in the ability of court to uphold justice, he said. LBH would not at all respect the process of transfer of duty if it is used as a pretext to promote "naughty judges", he said. "We are very disappointed with the Supreme Court for promoting judges with bad track records," he said, adding the decision would worsen the already bad performance of courts in Lampung. He said Bandarlampung LBH asked the Supreme Court to evaluate and revoke the decision on Chaidir. Bandarlampung LBH hopes that the Supreme Court should first study the track records of judges before promoting their positions, he said.