Prabowo Signs Criminal Adjustment Law: Several Points Explaining the Death Penalty and ITE

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto/ Photo: Antara

JAKARTA - The President of the Republic of Indonesia, Prabowo Subianto, has signed Law Number 1 of 2026 concerning Criminal Adjustment which came into force on Friday, January 2, 2026.

This regulation is a legal umbrella that harmonizes the criminal provisions in hundreds of sectoral laws to be in accordance with the Criminal Code (KUHP).

"We officially abandon the colonial criminal law system and enter an era of more humane, modern, and just law enforcement," said Coordinating Minister Yusril in a written statement regarding the new Criminal Code.

This regulation regulates fundamental changes related to the mechanism for imposing the death penalty, calculating the fine penalty, to the adjustment of articles in the Information and Electronic Transaction Law (ITE Law).

One of the crucial points in Law Number 1 of 2026 is the implementation of a probationary period for death row inmates, as regulated in article 100 of the new Criminal Code which is now adopted into other special laws.

Based on this rule, the judge is obliged to impose the death penalty with a probationary period of 10 years. If during the probationary period the convict shows commendable attitudes and deeds, the death penalty can be changed to life imprisonment through a Presidential Decree after receiving consideration from the Supreme Court (MA).

"The judge sentenced him to death with a probation period as referred to in Article 99 for 10 (ten) years," quoted Article 100 of the new Criminal Code.

This law also establishes a new standard in calculating the prison sentence in lieu of a fine. In annex III of Law Number 1 of 2026, a conversion table is included which serves as a guide for judges.

For fines in the light category, the substitute imprisonment is calculated equivalent to Rp1 million per day of imprisonment. Meanwhile, for fines in the heavy category (above Category VI), the value is calculated equivalent to Rp25 million per day of imprisonment.

This provision limits the duration of the substitute penalty to a maximum of two years, as stated in Article 82 paragraph 2.

"The length of the substitute imprisonment as referred to in paragraph 1 is at least one day and at most two years," the article reads.

In addition, for corporations that commit criminal acts, Article 121 gives the judge the authority to impose additional punishment in the form of payment of a fine of up to 10 percent of the annual profits or annual sales of the corporation, if the maximum category fine is considered not to have a deterrent effect.

This Criminal Adjustment Law also removes special minimum criminal threat provisions, such as a minimum prison sentence of several years in various sectoral laws, to give judges more flexibility in deciding small cases to meet the sense of justice of the community.

However, Article 1 of this law states that the abolition of special minimum penalties does not apply to crimes that are considered extraordinary crimes, including corruption, terrorism and terrorism financing, serious human rights violations (HAM), as well as narcotics and psychotropic crimes.

In an effort to suppress over-criminalization in the digital space, Law Number 1 of 2026 also adjusts the criminal provisions in the ITE Law.

Articles related to defamation, hate speech, and the spread of false news are now referred directly to the definitions and criminal threats in the new Criminal Code, including those listed in Articles 243, 263, and 441 of the new Criminal Code.

"Anyone who broadcasts, exhibits, or attaches writings or images so that they are visible to the public or plays a recording so that it is heard by the public or disseminates it with information technology means, containing statements of hostile feelings with the intention that the content is known or more known by the public, against one or more groups or groups of Indonesian residents based on race, nationality, ethnicity, skin color, gender, or disability that results in violence against people or goods, shall be sentenced to imprisonment for a maximum of four years or a maximum fine of category IV," reads Article 243.

This adjustment is expected to provide legal certainty and prevent the use of "rubber article" in handling digital cases in the future.