Camelia

Camelia Pasandaran & Nivell Rayda

The Constitutional Court on Wednesday ruled as unconstitutional an article in the 2002 Law on the Corruption Eradication Commission that required its chairpersons to be dismissed once they became defendants in court.

“Article 32;1c of the 2002 law on the [commission] is conditionally unconstitutional,” said Mahfud MD, the Constitutional Court’s chief. “It should be interpreted that [commission] chairpersons should resign or be permanently dismissed only after they are convicted as guilty based on a final and legally binding court verdict.”

The demand for the judicial review on the law was filed by Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M Hamzah, two Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputies who were suspended from their positions after being named as suspects in a case of extortion and power abuse.

The two plaintiffs claimed that they had been unfairly targeted and that the case against them had been fabricated by the police.

The Constitutional Court ruling said the article concerned was against the principle of presumption of innocence, and that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guaranteed that people could only be declared guilty by a court ruling.

Speaking to journalists outside the court, Mahfud said that one of the reasons for issuing the ruling was to keep the KPK strong and to prevent its leaders from becoming the victims of conspiracies.

Commenting on the decision, Bibit and Chandra both told the press that they were ready to return to their duties at the KPK.

“Yes, I’m ready,” Bibit said.

The two suspended deputies, however, said the court’s ruling would not automatically mean their immediate return to the commission.

“Our case has not been closed,” Bibit said. “And there is no indication of how to solve it.”

Bibit said that Wednesday’s court ruling would protect the KPK in the future.

“The next KPK chairperson will be safe from easily being fired and criminalized,” he said. “They won’t experience what we have gone through.”

Topo Santoso, a legal analyst from the University of Indonesia, said the ruling would have a tremendous legal as well as psychological impact on the KPK members.

“Based on the previous law, a KPK commissioner faced automatic dismissal once a case went to trial,” he said. “This made commissioners very vulnerable to attempts at criminalization, as we have seen in Bibit and Chandra’s case.”

“With the loophole closed, all of the members of the KPK, not just Bibit and Chandra, can now work at ease, knowing that they are protected.”

Wednesday’s ruling, however, did not affect former KPK chief Antasari Azhar, who was permanently dismissed when he became a defendant in the murder of a state company director, Nasrudin Zulkarnaen.

“The decision will have no implications for Antasari,” Mahfud said. “When the ruling was issued at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Antasari had already been officially fired. He cannot claim anything from this ruling.”

Antasari’s lawyer, Muhammad Assegaf, said he had also filed a motion with the Constitution Court in an effort to save his client’s position at the KPK .

“We submitted the request two weeks ago,” Assegaf said. “We are confident that the court will make the same decision because the court saw the article as unconstitutional.”

KPK spokesman Johan Budi said Mas Achmad Santosa and Waluyo, the temporary replacements for Bibit and Chandra, welcomed the court’s decision and were ready to step down from their positions as interim deputy commissioners.