South Jakarta District Court Chief Involved in Bribery Case, Proof That Judicial Mafia Is Still Rampant?

The judiciary has once again come under public scrutiny. Once more, judges who are supposed to uphold law and justice have been implicated in corruption cases. The modus operandi is almost identical to previous cases, involving the manipulation of case handling in court in exchange for a sum of money.

No half-measures, this time the judge implicated in the alleged corruption case is the Chairman of the South Jakarta District Court, Muhammad Arif Nuryanta, also known as MAN. Arif was arrested by the Attorney General's Office (AGO) and named a suspect in a bribery case related to the handling of corruption in crude palm oil (CPO) export cases, Saturday (12/4/2025).

The money allegedly received by Arif reached Rp 60 billion. The corruption case of CPO exports allegedly managed by Arif involved three large companies, namely Permata Hijau Group, Wilmar Group, and Musim Mas Group. The three companies received a verdict of acquittal from criminal charges or ontslag van alle rechtsvervolging from the Corruption Court (Tipikor) at the Central Jakarta District Court, March 19.

"This is suspected to be related to the case of managing corruption crimes in granting export facilities for CPO and its derivatives in the palm oil industry during January-April 2022 under the name of the corporate defendant," said the Director of Investigation at the Junior Attorney General for Special Crimes, Abdul Qohar, on Saturday night.

When the corruption case regarding the provision of export facilities for CPO was tried at the Jakarta Corruption Court, Arif Nuryanta served as the Deputy Chair of the Central Jakarta District Court. The Jakarta Corruption Court operates under the Central Jakarta District Court.

In addition to Arif Nuryanta, there are three other suspects, namely Wahyu Gunawan, who served as the Junior Civil Registrar at the North Jakarta District Court and previously worked at the Central Jakarta District Court, as well as Marcella Santoso and Aryanto, who are legal representatives of a company implicated in the corruption case involving CPO exports.

The bribe money for Arif, according to Qohar, was given through Wahyu, who at the time served as a clerk at the Central Jakarta District Court. Coincidentally, Wahyu was one of Arif's trusted associates. After the bribe was received, Arif appointed three panel judges who facilitated the issuance of the acquittal decision.

The arrest of Arif and Wahyu adds to the growing list of corruption cases involving law enforcement officials, particularly judges. So, what is actually happening within the judicial institutions in Indonesia?

Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, Mulawarman University, Herdiansyah Hamzah, on Sunday (13/4/2025), stated that the case involving the Chairman of the South Jakarta District Court further highlights the persistent corrupt mentality within judicial institutions. The increasing number of corruption cases involving judges also indicates that corruption within judicial bodies is difficult to eradicate.

Herdiansyah even said that the corrupt mentality in the judicial institutions under the Supreme Court (MA) was no longer latent, but was being carried out openly and was happening everywhere.

He gave an example, before the arrest of the Head of the South Jakarta District Court, in October 2024 the AGO had uncovered the bribery case of Ronald Tannur's acquittal to former Supreme Court official Zarof Ricar. In fact, the AGO also arrested former Head of the Surabaya District Court Rudi Suparmono who was suspected of being involved in the bribery case of Ronald Tannur's acquittal.

It is known that the trial of the three defendants who acquitted judge Ronald Tannur, namely Erintuah Damanik, Mangapul, and Heru Hanindyo, as well as the case involving Zarof Ricar, is currently still ongoing at the Jakarta Corruption Court.

The arrest of the Head of the South Jakarta District Court shows that the judicial mafia has a strong grip on law enforcement institutions, including the judiciary.

Previously, there was also the case of the arrest of former MA Secretary Nurhadi (March 2021) and former MA Secretary General Hasbi Hasan (April 2024) for accepting bribes and gratuities and being an intermediary for arranging cases within the MA, first instance courts, and appellate levels.

Even Supreme Court judges were involved in bribery and dismissed, such as Supreme Court Justice Ahmad Yamani (November 2012) who changed the length of the sentence for a convicted drug dealer.

Then, Supreme Court Justice Sudrajat Dimyati who was proven to have accepted bribes (May 2023) and was sentenced by the Bandung District Court (PN). Also, non-active Supreme Court Justice Gazalba Saleh who was sentenced to accepting gratification and money laundering (October 2024) by the Jakarta Corruption Court.

Researcher from the Center for Anti-Corruption Studies, Gadjah Mada University (Pukat UGM) Zaenur Rohman added that the arrest of the Head of the South Jakarta District Court showed that the judicial mafia had a strong grip on law enforcement institutions, including the judiciary. This incident is also considered to be just the tip of the iceberg because there are still many other judicial mafias moving, operating every day, in judicial institutions.

"I think this shows that the cases that have occurred have not had any deterrent effect," said Zaenur.

Zaenur also urged the Attorney General's Office to immediately investigate the involvement of the panel of judges who tried the case, who issued an onslagt (acquittal) verdict in the corruption case of crude palm oil or CPO exports.

"So, the one who has the authority over the decision, who makes the decision product, is the judge. So, do the judges in these cases enjoy it? That is the investigator's job to develop it, yes," said Zaenur.

Herdiansyah is also worried that if the bribery case of judges continues to occur, it will have huge implications for the justice system. The level of public trust in institutions and the justice system could continue to erode.

"The public no longer trusts judges and all the apparatus in the justice system, that is the big implication. The danger is if the public's trust decreases, no one will trust the judge's decisions, for example," he said.

Therefore, Herdiansyah hopes that the law enforcement process must be strengthened. He asked for severe sanctions to be imposed on the judges involved, especially those who committed corruption. The severe sanctions could provide a deterrent effect on the judges.

"Well, so far, judges who commit corruption tend to only get low sentences. So, if we want to fix our justice system, provide a deterrent effect so that other people or other judges do not do the same thing, then it must be made more severe in the jurisdiction or the sanctions given. It must be heavier," he said.

In addition to the deterrent effect, Herdiansyah encouraged improvements to the judge recruitment system. According to him, there needs to be some kind of tool to measure a person's track record and background, in order to ensure that the prospective judge does have sufficient and adequate integrity to become a judge. Not only that, the supervision sector must also be fixed immediately.

Because, so far there has been an impression that if there are cases involving judges and judicial apparatus, it seems to be an internal matter of the Supreme Court. "External supervision, especially civil society, can only run if the system in the Supreme Court is more transparent and open. Data can be obtained more easily and so on. Only in this way can external supervision be carried out," said Herdiansyah.

Meanwhile, the investigation into the alleged bribery case involving the South Jakarta District Court Chief is still ongoing. Attorney General's Office investigators will also examine the judges who tried the alleged CPO export corruption case.

Head of the Attorney General's Office's Legal Information Center Harli Siregar confirmed that the case will continue to develop. On Sunday (13/4/2025), two member judges in the case, namely Agam Syarif Baharuddin and Ali Muhtarom, underwent examination at the Attorney General's Office.

Meanwhile, Djuyamto, who is the Chief Justice in the corporate corruption case, visited the AGO early Sunday morning. However, his arrival was not informed to investigators so that he was not questioned as a witness.

However, Harli said, investigators had prepared themselves to ask for information from Djuyamto.

Separately, Supreme Court spokesman Yanto emphasized that he could not yet comment on the case involving the Head of the South Jakarta District Court. He admitted that he was still out of town and had only received information about the arrest from the mass media. He said that the Supreme Court would provide an official statement on Monday (13/4/2025).