MOST CORRUPTION CASES IN SUPREME COURT END IN DEFENDANT'S ACQUITTAL

Jakarta, Jan 5 (ANTARA) - Most of the corruption cases handled by the Supreme Court (MA) in 2008 ended with the acquittal of the defendants, the Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) said.
"This finding is based on the results of ICW's monitoring of Supreme Court verdicts on corruption cases in 2008," an ICW researcher, Febridiansyah, said here on Sunday.
In 2008, the MA handled the cases of a total of 444 individuals accused of corruption, and acquitted 277 or 62.4 percent of them of all the charges, he said.
Febridiansyah said the number of acquittals in corruption cases handled by MA was tending to rise from year to year.
"The results of our monitoring from 2005 to 2008, shows an upward trend in MA acquittals in corruption cases," he said.
From 2005 to 2008, the MA heard the corruption cases of 1,442 individuals and at least 659 of them were eventually declared not guilty.
Febriansyah said this condition showed the government's efforts to eradicate corruption was not being conducted as intensively as expected.
"In fact, the courts seem to have become a 'haven' for corrupters," he said.