South Sulawesi Police Chief Merdisyam with Constitutional Justices Suhartoyo and Saldi Isra at the Constitution Oration at the Paramartha Auditorium of the South Sulawesi State Police School, Friday (10/29/2021). Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

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Tuesday, November 4, 2021 | 14:51 WIB

JAKARTA, Public Relations—Constitutional Justices Suhartoyo and Saldi Isra gave speeches at the Constitution Oration on “The Amendment of KUHP and KUHAP through the Constitutional Court’s Decisions,” which the Constitutional Court (MK) organized in collaboration with the State Police School (SPN) of the South Sulawesi Regional Police on Friday, October 29, 2021.

In his speech, Constitutional Justice Suhartoyo said the Constitutional Court’s judicial review authority has a significant impact on the legal system, especially criminal law. Some of its decisions have changed the norms of criminal law. When a final verdict is pronounced at an open ruling hearing, it does not necessarily translate to understating by stakeholders relevant to the decision.

“A lot of other law enforcers such as judges, prosecutors, investigators, etc. are not aware of the Court’s decisions, which have shifted the meaning of existing norms,” Justice Suhartoyo said.

He revealed that civil service investigators (PPNS) are authorized to investigate money laundering (TPPU), on the condition that they coordinate with police investigators, pursuant to the provisions in the KUHAP (Criminal Procedure Code). The police remain involved when the investigation is transferred to the court.

Next, Constitutional Justice Saldi Isra in his speech said that when a case gets passed constantly, the principles of swift and economic criminal trial are not fulfilled. He believes there must be solutions to solve this issue and reach legal certainty.

“In practice, we know there are issues, but we don’t ever take legal actions. Police officers are not prohibited from filing a petition. [I’m not] urging you [to do so but you can] consider, how many times [a petition] can be filed, so the justices will decide. The Court has jurisdiction to rule on these things so that there will be no grey areas that lead to presumptions,” he said.

Justice Saldi said that cooperation with the police is needed relating to the Court’s decisions in the criminal law, although those decisions are publicly available. They can be downloaded from the Court’s website moments after they are pronounced at hearings that are open to public.

With regard to cases that get thrown back and forth between investigators and prosecutors, Justice Suhartoyo added on Justice Saldi’s explanation, that there are differences between the military and civil court. In the military court, he said, the prosecutors have been involved since the beginning, so that the back-and-forth between the investigators and prosecutors is unnecessary. However, in criminal cases, they are very likely, considering each case has different level of complexity.

Meanwhile, South Sulawesi Police Chief Merdisyam said in his speech that he hoped the two justices’ speeches would expand the police officers’ knowledge in performing their duties, especially in relation to the implementation of the KUHP (Criminal Code).

Writer        : Ilham Wiryadi Muhammad
Editor        : Nur R.
Translator  : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 11/5/2021 12:30 WIB

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.

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