New crime code draft to assign commissioner to clean up law enforcement

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 04/14/2010 2:11 PM

The new draft Criminal Law Procedure Code (KUHAP) introduces the new post of “Justice Commissioner” to clean up the country’s law enforcement agencies so they can effectively fight crime nationwide.

A member of the draft formulation team, Luhut M. P. Pangaribuan, said Wednesday during a discussion at Millenium Hotel in Jakarta that the Justice Commissioner’s office would monitor, supervise and control the investigation processes conducted by the police and prosecutors to eradicate the misuse of power currently occurring in the process of finding evidence and witnesses due to lack of supervision.

"The power of investigators is too extensive now and very dangerous for the constitutional rights of people," he said.

He continued that under the current Criminal Law Procedure Code anyone could be designated as a suspect without any clear legal reasons.

The Head of the National Law Commission, J. E. Sahetapy, said that the most important thing to do was not just to revise the Criminal Law Procedure Code, but to clean up the rampant corruption in all law enforcement institutions.

"Now, people don't believe that law enforcement officers are clean and have integrity," he said. (rdf)