Jakarta. Indonesia’s Justice Ministry has insisted that no sentence reductions were awarded to corruption convicts for the Idul Fitri holiday last week, following local media reports of cuts of up to two months for some notorious convicts.

“Not a single letter [approving a sentence cut] has been issued, in keeping with Government Regulation 99 of 2012,” M. Akbar Hadiprabowo, a spokesman for the ministry, told reporters in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Any sentence cuts, known locally as remissions, reportedly handed out to graft convicts “are merely recommendations from local offices of the Justice Ministry and are still being processed,” he added.

The 2012 government regulation was introduced by the administration of then-minister of justice Amir Syamsuddin to make it more difficult for corruption convicts to qualify for a sentence cut, as part of the Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono administration’s wider efforts to get tough on graft.

Under the regulation, corruption convicts must pay all fines and damages imposed by a court before they can qualify. They must also cooperate with law enforcement authorities investigating others implicated in the same case, and must have approval from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on whether they deserve a sentence cut.

The current justice minister, Yasonna Laoly from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), drew widespread condemnation earlier this year for calling for the regulation to be rescinded because it was too harsh on graft convicts.

His office, though, appears to still be abiding by the regulation in not approving sentence cuts this Idul Fitri. (The ministry traditionally hands out sentence cuts ranging from 15 days to two months during major public holidays.)

Local media reported last week that dozens of corruption convicts, including high-profile prisoners such as former Democratic Party treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin and rogue tax official Gayus Tambunan, had received sentence cuts of up to two months.

Nazaruddin is serving a seven-year sentence for bid-rigging in a contract for the construction of an athletes’ village in Palembang, South Sumatra, for the 2011 Southeast Asian Games; Gayus has been hit by a string of convictions for bribery, passport forgery and other offenses, putting his sentence at 30 years.

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Jakarta. The Indonesian police are reluctant to crack down on hate speech, including by hard-line Islamic groups, because there are no “rewards” for doing so and they fear a backlash, an official has admitted.

Sr. Comr. John Hendri of the National Police’s legal division acknowledged during a discussion in Jakarta on Friday that there was a widely held public perception that the police were unwilling to take on purveyors of hate speech such as groups hostile to minority religious groups.

“The truth is that police officers who see, hear or experience such incidents can file a report [for subsequent investigation], but tend to be scared to because there’s no reward or guarantee of safety for themselves,” he said.

He did not specify what he meant by “reward,” although it is almost universally believed that the Indonesian police typically demand money from anyone filing a report before they will proceed with an investigation.

John said the police were drafting a regulation that would protect officers when taking on cases of hate speech.

“We hope that with this regulation, our officers won’t be scared anymore,” he said.

“Without it, all they’ll have to work on are the existing laws, which require that a member of the public file a complaint [about the hate speech]. But there’s no way a member of any congregation is going to rat on a religious leader who threatens them.”

The claim that the police need protection against purveyors of hate speech is hugely ironic, given that some of the worst perpetrators, in particular the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), have long been championed by the police as providing a community policing service.

Leaked US diplomatic cables dating from 2006 allege that the FPI, responsible for attacks on minority Islamic communities and Christians, receives funding from the police and acts as the force’s “attack dog.” Senior officials at the Jakarta Police and National Police levels have for years defended the FPI as a “partner” to the police and attempted to downplay its litany of transgressions.

Sr. Comr. Chrysnanda Dwi Laksana, the head of the doctorate studies department at the police academy, said the police needed encouragement, not criticism, if they were to do their job of protecting persecuted minority groups.

“We need to make police officers braver, but they’ll only be more afraid if they keep getting criticized,” he said.

Adrianus Meliala, a member of the National Police Commission, a government-sanctioned watchdog for the force, countered that what the police really needed to do was stop making excuses and start protecting minorities.

“The problem isn’t the perpetrators who can’t be controlled, or the regulations that aren’t comprehensive, but the police themselves,” he said.

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Jakarta. Indonesia’s Constitutional Court on Thursday rejected a petition for a judicial review of Indonesia’s law on marriages, which, among other things, does not recognize interfaith unions.

Last September, five people submitted a motion for a judicial review of the 1974 Marriage Law, which requires all marriages in Indonesia to be conducted “in accordance with the respective religious beliefs of the bride and groom.” The petitioners argued the law violated the Constitution and state ideology of Pancasila.

On Thursday, however, the petition was turned down.

“The court rules that the petitioners’ request does not have a legal basis and therefore rejects the appeal for a judicial review,” Chief Justice Arief Hidayat said.

The court did not consider the clause that effectively outlaws interfaith marriage as a violation of the Constitution, Arief said, because marriage does not only include formal aspects, but also “spiritual and social” aspects.

The court stated that religion was an important platform for individuals and communities when they establish a marriage, and that the state must provide legal certainty and protection for nuptials.

The court also rejected the petitioners’ request to raise the legal age for marriage to 18 years from 16 at present, based on recommendations from the Women’s Health Foundation (YKP) and the Child Rights Monitoring Foundation (YPHA).

The court said that raising the legal age for a marriage would not guarantee a decrease in the number of women potentially at risk of reproductive health problems, adding that the law as it stood already took into consideration all health, social and financial aspects when stipulating a minimum age of 16.

The petitioners had argued that the current legal age also violated girls’ right to complete their education and could lead to a higher maternal mortality rate. Indonesia already has the highest maternal mortality rate in Southeast Asia.

“We definitely respect the court’s decision, but we will study the verdict and consider all options before deciding our next move,” Damian Agata Yuvens, one of the petitioners, told reporters after the ruling.

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Jakarta. A lawyer representing the family of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has dismissed as groundless the remarks of a graft defendant alleging one of the former president’s sons had rigged the tender process for construction of an offshore oil rig.

During a session at the Jakarta Anti-Corruption Court on Thursday, defendant Sutan Bhatoegana claimed that Edhie Baskoro Yudhoyono had pressured the then-chief of the upstream oil regulator SKK Migas, Rudi Rubiandini, to annul Timas Suplindo as the winner of a tender to construct an oil rig on the Makassar Strait in 2013.

The lawyer for Yudhoyono’s family, Palmer Situmorang, called the claim “baseless.”

“There is not a single witness who said Ibas had met with Rudi Rubiandini,” Palmer said on Monday, referring to Edhie by his popular nickname.

“Bhatoegana’s own remarks never explained when or how Ibas had pressured Rudi. Let’s wait for the trial to continue to see what sort of pressure Sutan was referring to.”

Sutan, a former lawmaker for the Democratic Party, which Yudhoyono chairs, was charged with accepting bribes when he chaired the House of Representatives’ oversight commission for energy in 2013.

Sutan’s case is closely linked to that of fellow Democratic Party lawmaker Jero Wacik, the energy and mineral resources minister under Yudhoyono, who was named a suspect last year by the KPK for embezzlement and abuse of power.

The case came to light following Rudi’s arrest in August 2013, when he was caught red-handed taking a bribe from representatives of Singapore-based oil trader Kernel Oil.

Rudi, who was subsequently convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison, claimed that $200,000 of the bribe was meant for Sutan and other members of the House energy commission.

During his trial, Sutan quizzed Rudi, who took the witness stand about the 2013 tender to build the oil rig, which Timas won. But Rudi said he had been “pressured” not to sign off on the outcome of the tender.

“You said you were pressured, weren’t you? Won’t you name the one exerting this pressure? Well, let me name them. It was Ibas and his friends, wasn’t it?” Sutan told Rudi.

Rudi remained quiet.

Palmer said Yudhoyono’s family had decided to wait on the outcome of Sutan’s trial before deciding on any legal move against the accusations.

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), which is investigating the case, said it would also wait on the trial’s outcome before questioning Ibas on the accusation.

“It all depends on whether there is evidence to support this claim,” KPK interim deputy chairman Johan Budi said.

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Jakarta. An Indonesian court on Monday sentenced a former North Sumatra district chief to four years in prison for bribing the country’s top judge in exchange for a favorable ruling in an election dispute.

Judge Muchammad Muchlis of the Jakarta Anti-Corruption Court also fined Raja Bonaran Situmeang, the former head of Central Tapanuli district, Rp 200 million ($15,200) after finding him guilty of paying Rp 1.8 billion in bribes to Akil Mochtar, then the chief justice of the Constitutional Court, to rule in his favor in a dispute arising from the 2012 district election.

The sentence and fine were lower than the six years and Rp 300 million sought by prosecutors. Both sides said they would study the ruling before deciding whether to appeal.

Bonaran becomes the latest regional official to be jailed in the wake of the Akil scandal. The judge himself was convicted in June last year of taking bribes in connection with more than a dozen regional election disputes, and handed an unprecedented life sentence by the Jakarta Anti-Corruption Court — the stiffest sentence ever given in a graft case in Indonesia.

Others jailed in the same case include Ratu Atut Chosiyah, the former governor of Banten province, and Romi Herton, the former mayor of Palembang in South Sumatra, as well as a host of fixers and lawyers.

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