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Dozens of prison guards combed the Salemba Detention House in Central Jakarta, in the wee hours of last Tuesday. As inmates slept, the guards checked the interior of every block, and then scoured the penitentiary mosque and church. But, not all the prisoners were asleep.
When the guards searched Block G, one prisoner was caught heading for the wall behind the jail in a rush. Two guards caught the man as he tried to reenter the detention block carrying a black plastic bag. "He seemed to be trying to discard the bag," said Penitentiary Head Gun Gun Gunawan, recounting the operation to Tempo on Tuesday last week.
Four cells at the end of the hallway of the National Narcotics Agency (BNN)'s detention center are now empty. The rooms, each measuring 30 square meters, are sealed off with police tape. Iron bars block access to the cells and separate them from the other eight cells. Down the hallway, at the bottom of an iron ventilation grille panel, is a gaping hole the size of a 21-inch TV screen. Right above is an active CCTV camera.
Last Wednesday, several workers were seen busily trying to close the gap, which had been used as an escape route for ten prisoners the Monday before. "The Inspectorate's team is still investigating how the escapees punctured a hole through the wall," said Sr. Comr. Slamet Pribadi, BNN's spokesman last Thursday.
NEWS of the verdict handed down last Monday by the Ambon Fisheries Court to Zhu Nian Lee, the captain of the MV Hai Fa vessel, had Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pujiastuti up in arms. She is adamant that Lee deserves much more than a Rp200 million slap on the wrist for his illegal fishing.
PRESSED for time, the seven Judicial Commission (KY) commissioners, physically separated by over 1,000 kilometers, used a BlackBerry chat group to form a judge's panel on March 11. On that day, several commissioners were in Bali. Others were in Jakarta. As soon as the group was formed, the panel got to work gathering witness statements and other evidence needed to prove a suspected violation of the ethics by an unnamed Supreme Court justice. "We were certainly in a race against time," the Judicial Commission chair for inter-institutional relations, Imam Anshori Saleh, said in his office last Tuesday.
The panel was composed of Judicial Commission Chairman Suparman Marzuki, Judicial Commission Chairman for Prevention and Quality Improvement Hakim Ibrahim and Imam Anshori. Imam says the panel was in a hurry, as they wanted to clarify the suspected ethics violation before the justice in question was hauled off before the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). "Examining a justice's ethics must come before any prosecution of a crime," Imam stressed.
The meeting held Monday morning last week at the Communication and Information Technology Ministry in Jakarta was hastily arranged.
Minister Rudiantara listened patiently as his legal team explained the Jakarta State Administrative Court's (PTUN) verdict, delivered Thursday in the preceding week. The impact, however, was pretty simple.
The Public Works Ministry's National Water Resources Council is in flux. A meeting of members has been delayed for two weeks. The meeting to discuss various work programs had been scheduled at the beginning of the year. "The secretariat is not prepared to hold the meeting after the decision of the Constitutional Court," Imam Mustofa, a member of the six-year-old Council, told Tempo on Thursday last week. "We need to first consult with the Justice Ministry about the legality of our institution."
After delivering his verdict last Monday, Judge Sarpin has seemingly disappeared. He has not returned to the court since, while his colleague, I Made Sutrisna, says he had not seen Sarpin in days.
Sutrisna said that ever since the pre-trial lawsuit was filed by Budi Gunawan against the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) over his indictment for corruption, Sarpin became reclusive. "He's not in today. I don't know why," Sutrisna told Tempo in his office last Friday. Sutrisna, who is also spokesman for the South Jakarta District Court, said the last time Sarpin clocked-in was on Tuesday morning, one day after ruling in Budi Gunawan's favor. After excusing himself, citing fatigue, Sarpin failed to show up for work on Wednesday. On Friday, following Thursday's Lunar New Year holiday, he again failed to turn up.
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