Constitutional Justices Suhartoyo and M. Guntur Hamzah at the ruling hearing for the material judicial review of Law No. 1 of 2023 on the Criminal Code, Thursday (5/25/2023). Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — Law No. 1 of 2023 on the Criminal Code (KUHP) was only promulgated on January 2, 2023. However, Article 624 Chapter XXXVII on Closing Provisions mentions that it is only in effect three years since promulgated, meaning that it is only in effect starting January 2, 2026.

This was the legal considerations of Decision No. 36/PUU-XXI/2023 read out by Constitutional Justice Suhartoyo at a ruling hearing on Thursday, May 25, 2023 in the plenary courtroom. The petition was filed by Leonardo Siahaan and Ricky Donny Lamhot Marpaung. They challenged Article 100 paragraph (1), Article 256, and Article 237 letter c of the Criminal Code.

The enactment of the Criminal Code has also been considered in several decisions such as No. 1/PUU-XXI/2023, 7/PUU-XXI/2023, and 10/PUU-XXI/2023, which were read out at an open plenary hearing on February 28, 2023. Since the petition was filed on March 28, 2023 and registered by the Registrar’s Office on April 3, while the revised petition was received on April 26, when the petition was filed, the fact is that the new Criminal Code petitioned for review was not in effect yet.

“As such, the requirement for assumed constitutional impairment due to the enactment of the legal norm and the causality between the assumed constitutional impairment and this norm was not met because it was not yet in effect. Therefore, the Court believes the Petitioners’ argument premature,” Justice Suhartoyo asserted.

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The Petitioners asserted that Article 237 letter c of the Criminal Code was similar to Article 57 letter d of the Criminal Code that the Court had annulled. They believed the article showed the Government’s non-compliance with the Constitutional Court Decision No. 4/PUU-X/2012. They argued the articles were exactly the same, but ironically Article 57, which has been declared unconstitutional, was somehow re-enacted and re-incorporated into the Criminal Code in Article 237. This indicated that the Government did not comply with the Constitutional Court’s decision.

The Petitioners also took issue with the criminal punishment for those who protest without a permit as stated in Article 256 of the Criminal Code. The Petitioners believed that the article had caused potential harm and threatened freedom of expression as guaranteed in Article 28 of the 1945 Constitution. They then requested that the Court declare Article 100, Article 237 letter c, and Article 256 of the Criminal Code unconstitutional and not legally binding.

Author       : Sri Pujianti
Editor        : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR            : Andhini S. F.
Translator  : 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.

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