Jakarta – The Civil Society Coalition for Criminal Procedure Code Reform believes the deliberations on the Draft Criminal Procedure Code (RUU KUHAP) to be both formally and materially flawed. The coalition is asking President Prabowo Subianto and the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR RI) to postpone deliberations on the bill.
"The Civil Society Coalition for Criminal Procedure Code Reform encourages and urges the DPR RI and the government to postpone deliberations or even taking the RUU KUHAP to the next level of deliberation in the DPR RI", said Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) Deputy Chairperson Arif Maulana in Jakarta on Sunday November 16.
"So, we see that several of the things we mentioned are still very problematic in substance. Therefore, we urge the President of the Republic of Indonesia to remind legislators and government representatives discussing the RUU KUHAP to stop their deliberations", he added.
The problems referred to by Maulana include highlighting the process of the RUU KUHAP working committee (Panja) meeting that took place on November 12-13.
At the meeting, the government and the DPR's Commission III discussed input on articles that they claimed came from a civil society coalition comprising the YLBHI, the Community Legal Aid Institute (LBHM), the Indonesian Judicial Research Society (IJRS), the Women's Legal Aid Foundation for Justice (LBH APIK), the Lokataru Foundation, the Indonesian Legal Resource Centre (ILRC), the National Coalition of Disability Organisations and the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI).
Several inputs read out during the working committee meeting were said to differ from those provided by the coalition. Furthermore, the coalition also highlighted the very brief and insubstantial nature of the discussions on the RUU KUHAP. The latest discussions reportedly showed no changes compared with the earlier July 2025 draft.
"Yesterday's discussions didn't show any significant changes from what we voiced last July. Then, when we looked at what happened over those two days, it actually didn't address our issues, the most important of which was actually the issue of arrests and detention". said ICJR researcher Iftitah Sari.
She then cited the example of how arrests and detentions were carried out indiscriminately against people during the series of demonstrations last August. The Coalition hopes that the new KUHAP will be able to control such practices.
Furthermore, the Coalition also highlighted several other points, such as undercover buy operations and controlled delivery, which were previously under the jurisdiction of investigators and only for specific crimes, namely narcotics.
Under the RUU KUHAP) this authority is included in the investigative method and can be applied to all types of crimes, without limitations and without judicial oversight.
This broad, unsupervised authority is considered to have the potential to open the way for entrapment by law enforcement officials to create crimes and manipulate who the perpetrators are.
The coalition also highlighted the public's vulnerability to arrest, searches and wiretapping without a judge's permission.
Therefore, the coalition has issued an open summons to the president, the DPR, the Ministry of Law and the Ministry of State Secretariat.
In addition to halting the deliberations on the bill, the coalition has also requested that the DPR disclose and publish information on the final draft of the RUU KUHAP that came out of the most recent deliberations.
Furthermore, the government was asked to revise the substance of the draft RUU KUHAP by redrafting and rediscussing the concept direction to strengthen judicial scrutiny and checks and balance mechanisms.
The government and DPR was also asked not to rush into ratifying the RUU KUHAP, which is considered highly problematic. (lom/dhf)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Koalisi Sipil Desak Setop Pembahasan RKUHAP: Cacat Formil dan Materil".]
