Jakarta, LEGAL LITERACY— Former Chairman of the Surabaya District Court (PN), Rudi Suparmono, has been named a suspect by the Attorney General's Office in a bribery case related to the acquittal of a perpetrator of severe abuse, Ronald Tannur. Rudi is suspected of being involved in arranging the composition of judges assigned to acquit Ronald. Rudi was picked up in Palembang, South Sumatra, and taken to Jakarta to be questioned as a witness. He arrived at the Attorney General's Office on Tuesday (1/14/2025) at around 17.30 WIB. After being questioned for two hours, he was named a suspect. The Director of Investigation for the Junior Attorney General for Special Crimes, Abdul Qohar, explained in a press conference on Tuesday evening that Rudi, along with three Surabaya District Court judges, namely Erintuah Damanik, Mangapul, and Heru Hanindyo, allegedly received bribes from Ronald's lawyer, Lisa Rachmat, to influence the court's decision. Rudi received a bribe of 43,000 Singapore dollars from Lisa and was promised an additional 20,000 Singapore dollars from Erintuah. Evidence in the form of cash in various currencies, including rupiah, US dollars, and Singapore dollars, totaling Rp 21 billion, was confiscated from two houses belonging to Rudi located in Central Jakarta and Palembang. The origin of the money is still being investigated by the investigation team. For further investigation, Rudi will be detained for 20 days at the Salemba Detention Center, Jakarta South District Attorney's Office Branch. Currently, Rudi serves as a judge at the Palembang High Court. Previously, he had led the Central Jakarta District Court for eight months, from April to November 2024. The Head of the Legal Information Center of the Attorney General's Office, Harli Siregar, stated that Rudi's designation as a suspect was based on two sufficient pieces of evidence.

Case Chronology

This case began with a request from Ronald Tannur's mother, Meirizka Widjaja, to Lisa Rachmat to help take care of Ronald's acquittal at the Surabaya District Court. In October 2023, Meirizka handed over Rp 1.5 billion to Lisa. Furthermore, Lisa met with the Chairman of the Surabaya District Court at that time, Rudi Suparmono, and asked about the composition of judges who would handle Ronald's case. Rudi informed that the judges who would handle the case were Erintuah Damanik, Mangapul, and Heru Hanindyo. In June 2024, Lisa gave an envelope containing 140,000 Singapore dollars to Erintuah at Ahmad Yani Airport, Semarang. The money was then distributed to the judges, namely 38,000 Singapore dollars for Erintuah and 36,000 Singapore dollars each for Mangapul and Heru. In addition, Lisa also gave 20,000 Singapore dollars to Rudi and 10,000 Singapore dollars to the registrar Siswanto. In July 2024, the panel of judges consisting of Erintuah, Mangapul, and Heru acquitted Ronald Tannur of all charges. Before the verdict was read, Erintuah even drafted the acquittal wording, which was revised by Heru. This case was revealed after a sting operation against the three judges by the Attorney General's Office in October 2024. The three judges are now being tried in the Jakarta Corruption Court on charges of receiving bribes worth Rp 1 billion and 308,000 Singapore dollars or the equivalent of Rp 3.6 billion. According to Abdul Qohar, the designation of Rudi as a suspect does not require the approval of the Supreme Court (MA) because he is caught in a sting operation case, as regulated in Article 26 of Law Number 8 of 2004 concerning General Courts. Nevertheless, the Deputy Chairman of the MA, Suharto, stated that he had not received information regarding Rudi's arrest and would conduct further checks. Meanwhile, Lisa Rachmat has been handed over to the public prosecutor of the Central Jakarta District Attorney's Office on Wednesday (1/8/2025). The prosecutor suspects that the money given to the judges was intended to influence the acquittal of Ronald Tannur. Currently, the investigation is still ongoing to uncover more parties involved, including the origin of the Rp 21 billion found in Rudi's house.