Restorative Justice Gaining Support in AGO's New Regulation
The Attorney General's Office ("AGO") recently enacted the Attorney General's Regulation No. 15 of 2020 on the Discontinuation of Prosecution based on Restorative Justice (“Regulation 15 of 2020”). Before this, the Indonesian National Police has already adopted the concept of restorative justice through the Criminal Investigation Regulation (Chief of Police Regulation No. 6 of 2019), but its application was limited to only the investigation stage.
Regulation 15 of 2020 takes the concept further by also allowing a prosecution to be dismissed based on restorative justice. Together with the Criminal Investigation Regulation, it essentially turns restorative justice into a path to avoid a criminal conviction, placing it as the last resort.
A New Standard to Convict Defendants in Corruption Cases
In light of the disparity of the decisions rendered by the Indonesian courts in relation to corruption cases, the Indonesian Supreme Court recently enacted Supreme Court Regulation No. 1 of 2020 ("Regulation No. 1 of 2020") to provide a standardised and fair benchmark in convicting defendants for corruption under Articles 2 and 3 of the Anti-Corruption Law ("Anti-Corruption Law").
Under Regulation No. 1 of 2020,the court should sequentially consider the following six aspects to determine conviction for violation of Articles 2 and 3:
- the amount of loss suffered by the state;
- the scale of the crime, impact and benefits enjoyed by the defendant;
- the term of imprisonment;
- any incriminating and alleviating conditions;
- the criminal conviction; and
- any other provisions relating to a criminal conviction.