Legal counsel M. Rullyandi conveying the petition’s revisions at the material judicial review hearing of Law No. 4 of 2023 on the Financial Sector Development and Reinforcement, Monday (7/3/2023). Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) held another judicial review hearing of Article 8 point 21, Article 49 paragraph (5), and Article 49 paragraph (1) letter c Law No. 4 of 2023 on the Financial Sector Development and Reinforcement (P2SK) on Monday, July 3, 2023. The case No. 59/PUU-XXI/2023 was filed by the Workers’ Union, Banks, Services and Insurance (SP NIBA) of mutual life insurer Asuransi Jiwa Bersama (AJB) Bumiputera 1912, I Made Widia, Ida Bagus Made Sedana, and Endang Sri Siti Kusuma Hendariwati (Petitioners I-IV).

Article 49 paragraph (1) letter c of the P2SK Law reads, “Investigators of the Financial Services Authority shall consist of: ... c. certain employees, who are given special authority as investigators as referred to in the Criminal Procedure Code, to investigate criminal acts in the financial services sector.” Article 49 paragraph (5) reads, “Investigation of criminal offenses in the financial services sector can only be carried out by investigators of the Financial Services Authority.”

Before Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat and two other members of the panel, legal counsel M. Rullyandi conveyed the revisions to the petition. “There were 24 recommendations from the justices that we have reviewed and followed up on,” he said. The format of the petition has also been revised following the Constitutional Court Regulation (PMK).

He also said that repetitions in the petition had been minimized, but there were additional elaborations to strengthen the Petitioners’ argument, in line with the justices’ advice.

“The provisional petition has been revised following Your Honors’ advice. We have tried to observe the Court’s decisions on the omnibus law. However, we have not found the mention of the article, so our reference, Your Honors, is the mention of the elucidation to the P2SK Law. It is a common reference to mention the implementing regulation, that is, the government regulation that refers to the omnibus law,” he explained.

Also read: OJK’s Sole Investigation Authority Questioned

At the preliminary hearing on Monday, June 19, it was asserted that Petitioner I, a private legal entity, had been harmed since the P2SK Law had eliminated his constitutional right to defend its members’—who are workers and citizens—legal interests. They had suffered losses due to being unable to take legal measures through the police against crimes in the financial services sector, as was faced by AJB Bumiputera 1912. They could only take legal actions through sole investigation of criminal offenses in the financial services sector, which only the OJK investigators can do.

Petitioner I believes the P2SK Law have consequences of constitutional issues in terms of certain employee investigators of the OJK. It can be ascertained according to logical reasoning that under the P2SK Law, sole investigation of criminal acts in the financial services sector is potentially carried out by certain employee investigators of the OJK. If interpreted that sole investigation of such criminal acts can only be carried out by the OJK, this provision would have a direct impact on the legal interests of members of Petitioner I, which is under the OJK’s supervision.

Petitioner II believes the granting of sole authority to OJK investigators has resulted in the rejection of the criminal report he lodged and reflects legal uncertainty in the law enforcement process. He also alleges that the OJK has monopolized investigations in the financial services sector, thus being contrary to due process of law based on fair legal certainty, as guaranteed in Article 1 paragraph (3) and Article 28D paragraph (1) of the 1945 Constitution. It also reduces the authority of the national police as the main state apparatus tasked with enforcing the law, as stipulated in Article 30 paragraph (4) of the 1945 Constitution.

Therefore, the Petitioners requested that the Court grant their provisional petition and postpone the enactment of the P2SK Law until there is a court decision in the a quo case, during which Law No. 21 of 2011 on the Financial Services Authority will apply.

Author       : Utami Argawati
Editor        : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR            : M. Halim
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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