West Java Police Criminal Expert In Pretrial Pegi Setiawan: 2 Evidence Needed To Determine Suspect

Criminal law expert from Pancasila University Agus Surono presented by the West Java Regional Police in the pretrial trial of Pegi Setiawan at the Bandung District Court, Thursday (4/7/2024). ANTARA/Rubby Jovan

JAKARTA - Criminal law expert from Pancasila University Agus Surono conveyed that the determination of suspects in criminal cases must have at least two pieces of evidence from three pieces of evidence based on Article 184 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

Agus explained the three pieces of evidence in question, namely witness statements, expert witnesses, and letters. According to him, based on the decision of the Constitutional Court (MK), witnesses do not always see and know of a criminal act.

"Based on the Constitutional Court's decision, it is not always the witnesses who see and know that there is a criminal act related to a crime. Then one witness is not qualified for one piece of evidence," said Agus when giving testimony as a criminal law expert presented by the West Java Regional Police in the trial of the pretrial of Pegi Setiawan at the Bandung District Court (PN), Thursday, July 4, confiscated by Antara.

Agus said that expert statements can also be used as evidence, but they must have qualifications in certain fields to strengthen a person to become a suspect.

"In the field of expert investigation presented by forensics, criminal digital linguists and so on, expert qualified," he said.

As for the letter evidence, he said in Article 187 of the Criminal Procedure Code it was stated that any form as long as it met the qualifications could be used as evidence.

Furthermore, he revealed that if two of the three pieces of evidence have been fulfilled, then the determination of the suspect can be said to be legal according to law.

"Regarding Perma number 4 of 2016 Article 2 Paragraph 2, when the evidence that I conveyed earlier was fulfilled, the determination of the suspect legally is legal," he said.

Meanwhile, the Head of Legal for the West Java Regional Police, Kombes Pol Nurhadi Handayani, claimed that his party already had a number of evidences in the form of documents, witness statements and experts as well as the results of the post-mortem on the victim when naming Pegi Setiawan as a suspect in the 2016 murder of Vina and Rizky in Cirebon.

"Yes, there are all the evidence from the witness, then the letter, then the expert," he said.

He conveyed that the determination of Pegi as a suspect had passed a series of case titles attended by a number of internal police parties and was based on sufficient evidence and comprehensive investigation results.

"Yes, it is like that, if people raise suspects, there are conditions that must be met, namely two pieces of evidence. The sound of a law is like that. Don't blame the expert or blame the investigator," he said.