The chief justice of Indonesia’s top court was dismissed from the post after an ethics council found him guilty Tuesday of making last-minute changes to election candidacy requirements.
Constitutional Court Chief Justice Anwar Usman committed the ethical violation that cleared the way for President Joko Widodo’s eldest son to run for vice president next year, Jimly Asshiddiqie, the chief of the court’s Honorary Council, known also as the ethics council, said in the majority decision.
Usman “was proven to have committed a serious violation of the code of ethics and behavior of constitutional justices” by violating the principles of impartiality, integrity, competence, equality, independence, appropriateness and decency, Asshiddiqie said.
The ruling came less than a month after the Constitutional Court, in a 5-4 decision, carved out an exception to the minimum age requirement of 40 for presidential and vice presidential candidates, allowing the president’s son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, 36, to seek the post.
Various organizations and rights activists challenged the court’s Oct. 16 decision. A majority reported Usman for alleged ethics breaches because he should have recused himself from hearing candidacy petitions to avoid conflicts of interest since Raka is his nephew by marriage.
The three-judge ethics panel removed Usman as chief justice but allowed him to remain on the court under certain conditions. The panel banned him from being involved when the court adjudicates election disputes next year.
It ordered the vice chief justice to lead the selection of the court’s new leadership within 48 hours and prohibited Usman’s nomination for chief justice during the remainder of his current term, which ends in 2028. He can be reappointed after 2028 as he is not over 70 years old.
In a dissenting opinion, a member of the panel, Bintan R. Saragih, argued for Usman’s dishonourable and permanent dismissal, not just as chief, the toughest possible penalty.
“The only sanction for serious violations is dishonourable dismissal and there are no other sanctions as regulated in the current law on the Constitutional Court,” Saragih said.
