Chief Justice Anwar Usman (right) and Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra (left) presiding over the fifth judicial review hearing of the Criminal Code and EIT Law, Tuesday (10/24/2023). Photo by MKRI/Fauzan.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The judicial review of Law No. 1 of 1946 on the Criminal Code (KUHP) in conjunction with Law No. 4 of 1976 on the Amendment and Addition to Articles in the Criminal Code Relating to the Expansion of the Applicability of Provisions on Criminal Law, Aviation Crimes, and Crimes against Aviation Facilities/Infrastructure in conjunction with Law No. 27 of 1999 on the Amendment to the Criminal Code Relating to Crimes against State Security (Law No. 1 of 1946); the Criminal Code (KUHP); and the Amendment to Law No. 11 of 2008 on Electronic Information and Transactions (EIT Law) for case No. 78/PUU-XXI/2023 continued on Tuesday, October 24, 2023 in the plenary courtroom. Haris Azhar and Fatiah Maulidiyanti (Petitioners I and II) are defendants undergoing trial at the East Jakarta district court.

Today’s hearing was to hear the testimonies of the Petitioners’ witnesses but the panel of justices stated that the hearing would be postponed because the witness testimonies had only been sent by the legal counsel on Tuesday, October 24, 2023 at 07:00 WIB.

At the hearing, Chief Justice Anwar Usman said that the witnesses’ biographies had only been received on October 24 by the Registrar’s Office, so it cannot be heard today. “Therefore, the witness testimonies will be heard on November 6, 2023 at 11:00 WIB,” he said.

In response to this, legal counsel Mohammad Fandi explained that the witness testimonies had only been submitted that morning while it must be submitted no later than two workdays before the hearing based on Article 62 of the Constitutional Court Regulation (PMK) No. 2 of 2021.

“We did not see any prohibition or consequences if the bio or [any other] requirements are submitted [after] two days. We request the panel’s consideration if it is not prohibited, so it can be done. We stand by our reasoning that we still want to hear the witness testimonies. However, we leave it to the panel [to decide],” he said.

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In their petition, Haris Azhar and Fatiah Maulidiyanti (Petitioners I and II) argue that their constitutional rights have been impaired due to the articles being petitioned. They believe those articles have criminalized them, whose work is focused on promoting human rights and the eradication of corruption, collusion, and nepotism (KKN). They also argue that the a quo articles were in fact used to criminalize those who critique of state officials and government policies. Petitioners I and II claimed that law enforcement officials prioritized criminal proceedings against them rather than following up, examining, and adjudicating cases that actually matter.

The Petitioners hoped the Court would accept and grant their provisional petition and order the East Jakarta District Court to stop and postpone the examination of cases No. 202/Pid.Sus/2023/PN Jkt.Tim and No. 203/Pid.Sus/2023/PNJkt.Tim until the Constitutional Court hands down a decision on this case. They also request that the articles petitioned be declared unconstitutional and not legally binding.

Author       : Utami Argawati
Editor        : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR            : M. Halim
Translator  : Nyi Mas Laras Nur Inten Kemalasari/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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