Judges And Employees Positive For COVID-19, Central Jakarta District Court Closed Again

Illustration (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - The Central Jakarta District Court (PN Jakpus) Class IA Special located on Jalan Bungur Raya, Kemayoran, will be temporarily closed on 21-23 December 2020 because several employees including judges are positive for COVID-19.

"Based on the results of the PCR COVID-19 swab examination, several judicial officers at the Special Class IA Central Jakarta District Court were exposed to the COVID-19 virus so that from 21-23 December 2020 office operations and court services were temporarily suspended," said Central Jakarta PN Public Relations Bambang Nurcahyanto. in Jakarta, reported by Antara, Thursday, December 17.

At least twice, the Central Jakarta District Court was temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, namely on August 25 - September 1 and October 7-14, 2020.

At that time there were 7 employees of the Central Jakarta District Court including two judges who tested positive for COVID-19 and there were a number of court delays.

According to Bambang, the Head of the Central Jakarta District Court has issued a decree No W10-U1 / 147 / KP.00.3 / XII / 2020 dated 17 December 2020 concerning Follow-up Handling of COVID-19 for the 2020 period regarding the temporary suspension.

However, according to Bambang, for very urgent services that cannot be postponed, their implementation will continue to be carried out such as trials for detainees who are about to expire their prison terms.

"It is true that 3 judges tested positive for COVID-19, so the cases handled will be temporarily suspended or replaced with other fellow judges," said Bambang.

In fact, the Central Jakarta District Court has used the "video conference" method for corruption cases (Tipikor) to minimize crowds.

However, only the defendant remained in the detention house and used "video conferencing" while the panel of judges, the public prosecutor (JPU), some legal advisers and witnesses still came to court.

The virtual trial was conducted for defendants whose cases were handled by the KPK, while defendants under the Attorney General's Office still had to undergo trial directly in court.

Furthermore, civil case proceedings, Industrial Relations Court and other trials are conducted virtually or directly.