Indonesia graft busters arrest one of country’s top judges

Akil Mochtar was arrested in October 2013 and was later sentenced to life imprisonment.

Indonesia’s anti-graft commission has arrested one of the country’s most senior judges on suspicion of taking a bribe in a Constitutional Court case. (Representational Image)

Indonesia’s anti-graft commission has arrested one of the country’s most senior judges on suspicion of taking a bribe in a Constitutional Court case. A deputy chairwoman of the independent Corruption Eradication Commission, Basaria Panjaitan, announced on Thursday that Constitutional Court Judge Patrialis Akbar and 10 other people were caught “red-handed” in an anti-graft sting.

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She said Akbar was suspected of receiving USD 161,000 from a meat importer in connection with the court’s judicial review of a revision to a law on animal husbandry. The businessman ran 20 companies dealing with meat imports.

Four of those arrested including Akbar were formally named as suspects while the seven others were still being questioned as witnesses, Panjaitan said.

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The deeply conservative former law and human rights minister is the second judge of the Constitutional Court to be arrested in a corruption case.

Akil Mochtar was arrested in October 2013 when he was chairman of the court’s nine-member panel of judges and was later sentenced to life imprisonment.

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