Constitutional Justices Suhartoyo, Saldi Isra, and M. Guntur Hamzah opening the panel petition revision hearing of the judicial review of the Criminal Law, Monday (1/9/2022). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

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Monday, January 9, 2023 | 15:12 WIB

JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) held another material judicial review hearing of the Criminal Code (KUHP) on Monday, January 9, 2023 in the panel courtroom. The petition No. 118/PUU-XX/2022 was filed by private employee Juliana Helemaya and farmer Asril (Petitioners I-II). Constitutional Justices Suhartoyo, Saldi Isra, and M. Guntur Hamzah presided over the petition revision hearing.

Legal counsel Faigi’asa Bawamenewi conveyed the revisions to the petition, which include the elaboration of the Court’s authorities and the supporting amended legislation, the Petitioners’ constitutional impairment, explanation on previous Constitutional Court decisions relating the petition’s arguments, the background of the petition and quotes by several experts, and the petitum on the phrase being petitioned. “The petitum now reads that Article 79 point 1 of the Criminal Code, which reads the same as Article 137 letter a of the Criminal Code Bill, is in violation of Article 28D paragraph (1) of the 1945 Constitution,” he said.

Also read: Ambiguity of Time Lapse for Letter Forgery Questioned

At the preliminary hearing on Tuesday, December 13, 2022, the Petitioners revealed that in a concrete case, investigators from the Riau Regional Police and Pekanbaru Police only used Article 79 of the Criminal Code on letter forgery. They calculated the time lapse of forged letters from the time it was used, whereas in several court decisions and legal experts have different interpretations, for example, Bawamenewi said, Supreme Court Decision No. 2224 K/Pid/2009, Bandung High Court Decision No. 261/Pid/2014/PT.Bdg, and Pekanbaru District Court Pretrial Decision No. 05/Pid.Pra/2018/PN.Pbr.

The Petitioners believe that such different interpretations of the time lapse among law enforcers, including the National Police, prosecutors, judges, and lawyers have reduced the protection of the rights of victims and/or reporters and/or injured parties, as they do not get fair legal certainty that is protected by Article 28D paragraph (1) of the 1945 Constitution.

Writer        : Sri Pujianti
Editor        : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR            : Tiara Agustina
Translator  : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 1/10/2023 10:35 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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