Fury at Bali Nine legal leak
By Stephen Fitzpatrick
September 16, 2007

INDONESIAN legal authorities have reacted with outrage to the leaking of a sensitive legal opinion that could seal the executions of three members of the Bali Nine heroin-smuggling gang.
The opinion, by three Denpasar District Court judges, was supposed to be sent confidentially to the Supreme Court in Jakarta, but was released this week to a local journalist in Bali.

In it, the judges recommend a judicial review request lodged by Matthew Norman, Si Yi Chen and Tan Duc Than Nguyen not be viewed favourably.

Such judicial reviews are rarely endorsed by the lower courts where they are heard - making the opinion itself an unreliable barometer of how the Supreme Court will move - but lawyer Erwin Siregar said yesterday he was worried the leak could influence the higher body.

"As far as I know - and I studied law for five years - legal opinions (such as this) are top-secret documents, which are only meant for the Supreme Court,'' Mr Siregar said.

The chief judge on the three-man panel behind the opinion, Martin Bidara, was furious yesterday over the leak but refused to comment to journalists. His anger was matched by concern from Indonesia's influential Judicial Commission, effectively the country's legal ombudsman.

"Documents such as this are not for the public - they are secret and are supposed to be guarded,'' Commissioner Soekotjo Soeparto said.

The Supreme Court in Jakarta typically takes months to hand down judgments - Australian marijuana smuggler Schapelle Corby is still waiting to hear her fate, after her own review wound up last August - so the three still face a prolonged wait.

This is the same court that raised their 20-year sentences to death in a previous review.
Telegraph