MA: Legal Gap Allows Corruptor Prisoners To Avoid Fines

UNSPLASH ILLUSTRATION

Chairman of the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court Suharto said the current legal loopholes allow corrupt convicts to avoid fines.

In a discussion held by the UN Agency for Drug and Crime Affairs (UNODC) in Jakarta, Suharto said corruption convicts often did not pay fines that had been decided by the court, and chose to serve imprisonment as a substitute for fines.

Similar conditions also occur in narcotics cases. He mentioned that many convicts did not pay the fines imposed, but they preferred to serve a substitute prison as a consequence of unpaid fines.

"In fact, the initial concept of law enforcement on corruption is in addition to imprisonment, as well as prioritizing additional penalties in the form of payment of replacement money to return assets resulting from criminal acts," Suharto said as quoted by ANTARA, Wednesday, November 15.

Therefore, he said, the perpetrators who have returned the proceeds of crimes in corruption will be considered as one of the factors that ease the sentence as stipulated in Article 4 of Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption as amended by Law no. 20 of 2001.

On the other hand, Suharto conveyed that the implementation of the confiscation of assets resulting from criminal acts in Indonesia was still hampered by various factors, including a lack of evidence, the suspect died, fled, or was on the wanted list (DPO).

Suharto assessed that there needs to be joint efforts by the government and stakeholders to improve national legal infrastructure by providing legal reinforcement in aspects of asset recovery through the mechanism for confiscation of assets resulting from criminal acts.

"This needs to be done solely as an aspect to impoverish corruptors. Assets resulting from crime are forces that must be paralyzed by being confiscated into state property or to return state losses," he said.

The Indonesian government has submitted a Bill on Asset Confiscation related to Criminal Acts to the DPR through a presidential order (supres) on May 4, 2023.

The Asset Confiscation Bill is one of the government's priority agendas in efforts to eradicate corruption and restore state assets. The government encourages the DPR to immediately discuss this bill during the last session of 2023.