JAKARTA - Law Number 20 of 2025 concerning the Code of Criminal Procedure (KUHAP) and Law No. 1 of 2023 concerning the Code of Criminal Procedure (KUHP) officially came into force on January 2.
Some parties consider this codification to be a masterpiece in the field of Indonesian law, but not a few who assess the new rules actually restrict civil liberties.
Lecturer in Criminal Law at STH Indonesia Jentera, Asfinawati, highlighted a number of articles in the Criminal Code which were considered to restrict civil liberties. One of them is Article 188 of the Criminal Code which contains a prohibition on disseminating and studying the teachings of communism, Marxism, and Leninism.
In fact, in various historical literature, these teachings are often mentioned as a subject matter. This restriction is feared to imprison public knowledge of ideological diversity.
"These lawmakers are afraid of thoughts. A government that is afraid of thoughts will never bring progress," Asfin said in a discussion held by the IX generation students of STH Indonesia Jentera, some time ago.
In addition, Asfin highlighted Article 218 regarding the attack on the dignity and dignity of the President and Vice President. According to him, the President and Vice President are institutional elements that have great power, so it is only natural that they are open to public criticism.
Although there are exceptions, the action is not an attack if it is carried out for "public interest" or "self-defense", but both terms are not explained in detail. The vacuum of this definition is considered vulnerable to criminalizing those who launch criticism.
"Do you see criminalization cases? People are called many times, investigated, then transferred to the Prosecutor's Office, then to the Court. I'm tired as his lawyer, not to mention that he has to leave his regular job, even the risk of being fired because he is considered to be involved in a legal case," explained Asfin.
Public lawyer from LBH Jakarta, Daniel Winarta, said Indonesia is experiencing a shrinking of civil liberties. Referring to Freedom House data, Indonesia's freedom score is 56/100 for the period from 2023 to May 31, 2024.
Daniel assessed that this phenomenon occurred because Indonesian criminal law tends to adopt the crime control model, namely the state has great authority to control the people in order to prevent crime.
This system is strengthened in the KUHAP 2025, especially regarding the procedures for searches and wiretaps.
In the new KUHAP, Daniel highlighted that in urgent conditions, searches can be carried out without a court order. In fact, a court order is a vital control instrument (judicial control) so that the police do not act arbitrarily.
"So the police can't suddenly come when we are hanging out and just search. That is, there must be a suspicion of a crime first. For example, if you are caught stealing, you will only be searched to find evidence," said Daniel.
He also criticized the authority of investigators to conduct "interrogations" which could potentially be misused as an excuse to make arrests. Daniel emphasized that criminal procedure law should be a protector of individual rights from the arbitrariness of the authorities.
More Valuable GoodsKontraS researcher, Hans Giovanny Yosua, also criticized the arrest procedure which did not require a court permit with the pretext of a request for information. He emphasized that arrests that resulted in detention were a serious restriction on Human Rights (HAM).
Ironically, actions related to the seizure of goods are required to have a court permit. According to Hans, this new KUHAP seems to provide higher protection for objects than humans.
"Detention that restricts individual freedom does not require court permission. However, seizure and search actions that restrict property rights must be approved by the court. That's weird. Our Criminal Procedure Code provides a higher standard of coercive efforts against goods than against people," he concluded.
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