Minister Of Law And Human Rights Yasonna Reveals Reasons For Indonesia Agreeing On Reciprocal Criminal Law Agreement With Russia

DOCUMENTATION BETWEEN/Menkum HAM Yasonna Laoly

JAKARTA - The Minister of Law and Human Rights (Menkum HAM) Yasonna H Laoly revealed the reasons for making the Draft Law (RUU) on the Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) in the Criminal Matters Agreement.

"As is well known, the bill has been submitted by the President through the Speaker of the House of Representatives (DPR) on June 8, 2021, and in the letter, the president has assigned the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Law and Human Rights, either individually or jointly to represent the president, to discuss this bill", Yasonna said in a working meeting with Commission III of the DPR, Jakarta, Wednesday, September 1.

Yasonna continued, in order to realize the country's goals in the fourth paragraph of the Preamble to the 1945 Constitution, Indonesia has a strong commitment to carry out law enforcement against transnational crimes through international agreements.

Along with increasing relations between countries such as investment, trade, cooperation in the banking sector and supported by rapidly developing and sophisticated information technology.

"Cooperation in the legal field is expected to provide legal certainty and increase protection between investors and foreign business actors in Indonesia and business actors abroad", Yasonna explained.

In addition, he said, it is also to tackle various crimes including transnational crimes which tend to increase along with the increasing interaction between communities. The reason, explained Yasonna, is that criminals often take advantage of gaps in the legal and system differences between countries and the limited jurisdiction for perpetrators of criminal acts.

"The legal cooperation referred to in this case through the mechanism of mutual legal assistance in criminal law will be an instrument that is able to answer the limitations of jurisdictions and differences in the legal system", he explained.

The PDIP Party politician said that the government views the importance of establishing a bilateral agreement between Indonesia and the Russian Federation to support the strategic partnership between the two countries since 1950.

As a permanent member of the UN Security Council (DK), Yasonna said, the Russian Federation at that time was still part of the Soviet Union, often raising the issue of Indonesia and demanding the UN to stop the Dutch military aggression as well as calling on the international community to recognize Indonesia as an independent country.

The Russian Federation also supports Indonesia in reclaiming West Irian and has a strategic role given its position as a G20 country and has important geopolitical and geoeconomic influence in the Eastern European region. For Indonesia, the Russian Federation is the largest trading partner in Eastern Europe.

"In 2020, the value of Indonesia's exports will reach USD 1.93 billion with a trend of increasing trade over the last 5 years by an average of 7.78 percent per year", he added.

In addition, Yasonna added, Indonesia has become one of Russia's investment destinations, such as investing in the USD 16 billion oil refinery in Tuban.

Yasonna assessed that mutual legal agreements on criminal matters with strategic countries will support the government's efforts to become a member of the Financial Action Tax Force (FATF) which is a world organization to implement effective implementation standards in efforts to criminalize money laundering, funding theorists and threats related to the integrity of the international financial system.

"Indonesia's membership in the FATF will increase Indonesia's positive perception in this regard as a business and investment destination, which is expected to make an important contribution in providing ease of doing business, which at this time Indonesia is still at the 73rd level and is expected to be ranked below 40", said Yasonna.