Ammar Zoni Not Presented At The Session, Attorney General Calls The Director General After Violating The Determination Of Judges

Ammar Zoni (VOI Team)

JAKARTA - The atmosphere of the Ammar Zoni criminal case trial related to allegations of drug abuse heated up after the Public Prosecutor (JPU) failed to present Ammar directly.

Tensions began when the Public Prosecutor read a letter from the Directorate General of Corrections (Dirjen Pas) rejecting the temporary transfer of the defendant Asep bin Sarikin et al from Nusakambangan to Jakarta for technical reasons.

Ammar Zoni's attorney, John Mathias, immediately reacted strongly to this reason. He assessed that the refusal of agencies under the Ministry of Law to comply with the judge's stipulation was a bad precedent for law enforcement in Indonesia.

According to him, the determination of the court is mandatory and must be obeyed by any agency for the sake of the rule of law.

"The law of the Criminal Event is clear, that the determination of the judge must be obeyed by anyone. If this is not obeyed, this will damage the law. This is the same as insulting the court!" said John Mathias at the Central Jakarta District Court, Thursday, December 4.

The defense highlighted the reason why the Director General of Pas used the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) related to the handling of Covid-19 in 2020 as the basis for rejection. For legal counsel, this reason has expired and is no longer relevant to be used at this time, considering that the status of the pandemic has been revoked.

"This MOU was made to look at the consideration that it was a Covid problem. This Covid has been completed. So for that we reject that reason," continued the lawyer.

He urged the Prosecutor not only to write to the Director General, but directly to the Coordinating Minister for Law or the Minister for Immigration and Corrections.

John's refusal was based on concerns that if the judge's decision could simply be ignored for administrative reasons, the judiciary's authority would collapse.

He reminded that the public is monitoring the proceedings of this trial and the non-compliance of the state apparatus will erode public trust.

"If this is forced, how will the community look at Your Majesty's decision, which has not been agreed upon? In the end, the public will not believe this decision later," he added.

Responding to the strong protest, the Panel of Judges tried to calm the situation and asked for court order. The judge admitted that his party had also received a copy of the rejection letter but had not yet made a final decision to change the determination of the trial to online.

The judge agreed to give the prosecutor the opportunity to coordinate further with the Director General of Pas. The judge emphasized that as long as there is no new determination, the order to present the defendant face-to-face (offline) is still valid.

"We will not want to continue this trial before it is clear. We ask the Public Prosecutor's colleagues to come to the Minister, Coordinating Minister, and Minister of Impas," concluded the panel of judges.