MAHFUD: CENTURY BANK INQUIRY COMMITTEE MUST SHOW ETHICS

Yogyakarta, Jan 16 (ANTARA) - Constitutional Court chief Mahfud MD said members of the House Century Bank Inquiry Committee must use ethics in treating officials they invite to testify over the case.

"With regard to the committee's hearing committee members must respect the officials. They should not have treated them including vice president Boediono like a defendant," he said here on Saturday.

He said president and vice president are state symbols and so they must treat them with ethics of statehood. Committee members must not be trapped into unethical political behavior.

"I support the exercise of the right by the House of Representatives members but I saw some had been unpolite in using the right," the law professor of the Yogyakarta-based Indonesia Islam University said.

He said committee members had to understand that the law was born out of ethics and so when implementing it they must stick to them.

"I have seen a lot of unethical questions or inquiry process shown by the committee members. They have acted like prosecutors to defendants," he said.

When asked about the committee's plan to summon President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono he said it was not prohibited by law but "the question is is it necessary to do it. If the problem is already clear why they should summon him," he said.