Justice Anwar Usman greeting the media while giving a press conference after the MKMK ruling, Wednesday (11/8/2023). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

---

JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court Ethics Council (Majelis Kehormatan Mahkamah Konstitusi or MKMK) issued a decision on the report of ethics violations by constitutional justices on Tuesday, November 7, 2023. One of the verdicts in MKMK Decision No. 02/MKMK/L/11/2023, delivered by MKMK chair Jimly Asshiddiqie alongside secretary Wahiduddin Adams and member Bintan Saragih, was to impose a sanction to dismiss Constitutional Justice Anwar Usman from the position of chief justice of the Constitutional Court.

After the decision, Justice Anwar Usman gave a statement to the media alongside Secretary-General Heru Setiawan on Wednesday, November 8. He made several remarks regarding his dismissal as the Constitutional Court’s chief justice. He stated that he had been a career judge in the Supreme Court. Therefore, he would fully comply with the principles and provisions of statutory laws and regulations.

“From the beginning, since becoming a judge and a constitutional justice, I’ve always said that if a justice makes a decision not based on their conscience, they are actually punishing themselves, and that the highest court is actually the court of conscience. Therefore, as a justice, I will be accountable to Allah SWT, the Almighty God,” he stressed.

He revealed that even though the MKMK decision had a pretext of a legal breakthrough aimed at restoring the Court’s image in the public eye, it was a violation of norms and provisions. “However, as the chief justice at that time, I did not attempt to prevent or intervene in the ongoing MKMK hearings,” he said.

He also said judicial review of laws in the Constitutional Court is public, and are not private, personal or individual cases. “Therefore, based on the jurisprudence and applicable legal norms, the question is: as a constitutional justice and chief justice of the Constitutional Court, should I have disregarded previous decisions because of pressure from the public or certain parties with certain interests? Or should I have withdrawn from handling case No. 96/PUU-XVIII/2020, in order to save myself? As I explained earlier, if I were to do that, it would have been like punishing myself because it went against my beliefs as a justice in deciding cases. In fact, logically, it would have been very easy for me to simply save myself by not participating in deciding the case. If the intention I and other justices had in deciding said case was to pass specific candidates, after all, it is not us who have the right to propose candidates. It is the people who will use their voting right through general election,” he explained.

Also read:

MKMK Holds Meeting to Clarify Reports of Alleged Ethics Violations by Justices

Ethics Council Removes Anwar Usman from Chief Justice Position

The MKMK received 21 reports of alleged code of ethics violations by constitutional justices related to court decision No. 90/PUU-XXI/2023 on the judicial review of Law No. 7 of 2017 on General Elections (Election Law). Based on these reports, it held examination hearings and listened to expert and witness testimonies. One of them resulted in Decision No. 02/MKMK/L/11/2023 on the alleged violation of code of ethics by the constitutional justice reported by Denny Indrayana et al. In the decision, the Council decided that Chief Justice Anwar Usman had committed violations against the Sapta Karsa Hutama principles of impartiality, integrity, competence and equality, independence, and propriety and decency. As a result, it dismissed Constitutional Justice Anwar Usman from the position of chief justice of the Constitutional Court.

Author       : Sri Pujianti
Editor        : Lulu Anjarsari P.
Translator  : Najwa Afifah Lukman/Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Disclaimer: The original version of the news is in Indonesian. In case of any differences between the English and the Indonesian versions, the Indonesian version will prevail.

---