The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), a regional human rights organization in Asia and the Indonesian Court Monitoring Society/MaPPI-FHUI, a civil society organization based in Indonesia, wishes to inform you about a journal (essay) concerning Limitation of the Supreme Court’s Authority in the Criminal Verdict Imposition in the Draft of Indonesian Criminal Procedure Law (RKUHAP), written by Mr. Harifin A Tumpa, (former) Chairman of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Indonesia (mantan Ketua Mahkamah Agung Republik Indonesia).
The journal paper can be accessed here
The Draft of Criminal Procedure Law (RKUHAP) has raised a lot of comments, both pros and cons. The counter parties assess that the RKUHAP exercises a lot of restrictions on authority so it is deemed to amputate the authority or weaken the authority of the law enforcers. Among them is a prohibition for the Supreme Court Judge to impose a more severe criminal penalty than the decision that has been handed down by the High Court (PT).
The draft cannot be separated from the fact that many of the Supreme Court decisions, which overturn the verdicts of PT without going through the corridor function of the Supreme Court as judex juris. The Cassation Judge as if acting as level III justice. On the other hand, the drafters of RKUHAP do not see what if the cassation judges find an error in the application of the procedural law. This paper will discuss the restrictions of the Supreme Court’s authority in imposing criminal verdict in the Criminal Procedure Law Draft, by giving an overview of practices and case studies of the Supreme Court’s decisions which convict higher than the previous decision. So further, the restriction in question is understood and the formulation of recommendations for improvements in RKUHAP.
This journal also published in the Indonesian Journal of Judiciary Teropong which published by the Indonesian Court Monitoring Society/MaPPI-FHUI.
