Expert from Hasto at the Constitutional Court: Article 21 of the Corruption Law needs to be reformulated

October 15, 2025
1:21 PM

Jakarta, shesocial Indonesia
—
PDIP Secretary General
Hasto Kristyanto
sue for the article on obstruction of investigation (
obstruction of justice
) in the Corruption Crime Law (
Corruption
) to the Constitutional Court (MK).
In the continuation of the trial at the Constitutional Court, the expert presented by Hasto to provide information before the court, Professor of the Faculty of Law, University of Indonesia, Professor Eva Achjani Zulfa, assessed that Article 21 of the Corruption Law which regulates obstruction of investigations needs to be reformulated.
“Reformulating the provisions of Article 21 of the Corruption Law, I think is a mandate that we must discuss together properly and pay attention to,” said Eva at the trial of case number 136/PUU-XXIII/2025 regarding the material review of Article 21 of the Corruption Law at the Constitutional Court building, Jakarta, Wednesday (15/10).
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Eva assesses Article 21 of the Corruption Law which regulates obstruction of investigations (
obstruction of justice
) so far this has given rise to multiple interpretations.
Article 21 reads, ”
Any person who intentionally prevents, obstructs or thwarts, directly or indirectly, the investigation, prosecution and examination in court of suspects and defendants or witnesses in corruption cases shall be punished by imprisonment for a minimum of 3 (three) years and a maximum of 12 (twelve) years and/or a fine of at least Rp. 150,000,000.00 (one hundred and fifty million rupiah) and a maximum of Rp. 600,000,000.00(six hundred million rupiah)
“.
According to Eva, people who defend themselves in a legal case cannot be charged with obstructing an investigation.As long as the defense remains in accordance with statutory procedures or provisions.
“Don’t let actions that are not against the law, such as filing a civil suit, actions of the press in conveying a criminal justice process, or actions such as conducting a pre-trial hearing be considered as actions that obstruct an investigation,” he said.
Apart from Eva, another expert presented by Hasto as the applicant was criminal law expert Chairul Huda.In his presentation, Huda actually asked for Article 21 of the Corruption Law to be abolished, especially since Indonesia refers to the UN Anti-Corruption Convention (
United Nations Convention Against Corruption
).
According to him, the deletion of this article is not problematic, because it is also regulated in the Criminal Code.However, the article on obstruction of investigation in the Criminal Code does not apply to corruption cases but to general crimes.
“So actually special investigators who are authorized to investigate criminal acts of corruption do not have the authority to enforce this article,” said Huda.
(thr/kid)
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