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View all search resultsNew KUHP, KUHAP meets legal pushback in Constitutional Court
At least 10 judicial review petitions against the new Criminal Code (KUHP) and Criminal Law Procedures Code (KUHAP) have been filed with the Constitutional Court within four days after the new laws came into force.
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A police officer stands guard in front of the Constitutional Court building on Feb. 4, 2025, in Jakarta. (Antara/Bayu Pratama S.)
M
embers of the general public have filed judicial review petitions to challenge several articles of the newly effective Criminal Code (KUHP) and Criminal Law Procedures Code (KUHAP) feared of limiting civil liberties and enabling excessive use of power by state authorities.
As of Tuesday, four days after the new laws came into force, the Constitutional Court has received at least 10 petitions filed by private company employees and law school students against several articles of the new KUHP and KUHAP.
One petition, filed by 12 students from Universitas Terbuka, urged the court justices to declare Article 218 of KUHP unconstitutional. The article stipulates criminal sanctions for any individuals found guilty of “attacking the honor or dignity” of the country’s president and vice president.
In another petition, 12 students from the same university, challenged Articles 240 and 241 in the Criminal Code on insults against the government and state institutions that may provoke public disorder, including ones disbursed through electronic platforms.
The law defines the government as “the president, vice president and cabinet ministers” and state institutions as “People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR), House of Representatives, Regional Representative Council (DPD), the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court”.
Such protections for officials and institutions are not relevant anymore, according to lawyer Zico Leonard Simanjuntak who represents some of the plaintiffs. He argued the Constitutional Court has long scrapped similar provisions in the previous version of the KUHP.
“The petitioners fear these articles will pose a higher risk of criminalization to government critics,” Zico said on Monday.
