KPK Rejects Government and DPR Request on KUHP Formulation

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) said it could not agree with the government and the House of Representatives (DPR) on inclusion of corruption criminal act (Tipikor) in the Draft Law on Criminal Code (KUHAP) in the form of core crime.

KPK already told President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) about its disagreement in its letter on 4 January 2017 for a number of reasons.

“After carrying out deeper studies, we came to a conclusion that KPK could not accept the request of the government and the DPR considering bigger national interest in fighting corruption,” KPK chairman Agus Rahardjo said in the letter he showed on Sunday.

KPK said in its letter , not all special laws outside KUHAP have to be integrated in a codification project, especially the characters of the specialty lies in the need for adaptation or to deal with to crimes, which are growing complex and changing fast in methods , structure and networks.

“KPK believes, integration of Tipikor in codification scheme in the draft law on KUHAP would cause the loss of the specialty set in the Tipikor. It would be lost in the general criminal act,” Agus said.

KPK cited there are at least 10 characteristics that make Tipikor different from other criminal acts including that Tipikor was formulated formally and not materially that recovery of the loss in state assets would have no bearing on criminal charge against suspects. The return of the assets could not serve as a factor of commutation of sentence.

He cited other characteristics making Tipikor different from other criminal acts is regulation of corporation as a legal subjects and shifting burden of proof.

The idea of codification of criminal law outside KUHAP is based on the Dutch criminal law, but corruption in the Netherlands is not as massive as in Indonesia, Agus said.

Dutch Corruption Perception Index (CPI) is 87 as against Indonesia`s 36 with index of 0 very corrupt and 100 very clean.

In addition, there are at least 30 countries in the world, already have constitution regulating special anti corruption institution, therefore, KPK is of the opinion that Tipikor included in the Draft Law on KUHAP is against law politic and the national interest at present, he said.

“It would not be difficult for the President and DPR to exclude chapters on Tipikor from the Draft Law on KUHAP,” KPK spokesman Febri Diansyah said.

Courtesy : Tempo.co
Photo : Tempo.co

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