Ada Pertanyaan? Hubungi Kami 
Ada Pertanyaan? Hubungi Kami Ali Salmande, Fathan Qorib, Robert Sidauruk
While there is a general consensus of opinion amongst all the Justices of the Supreme Court that they should enforce criminal penalties against corporations, there is also a further consensus that current laws and regulations are insufficient to allow them to actually do so.
Artidjo Alkostar, Chairman of the Criminal Division at the Supreme Court contends that current laws and regulations, which allow judges to impose criminal penalties against corporations, fail to provide clear direction as to how such actions are supposed to be implemented.
“For instance, although judges can impose criminal charges against a corporation, the question then is who will service the sentence? What about if the offence involves many perpetrators in a single corporation?” Artidjo said.
Likewise, Justice Surya Jaya admitted that the concept of criminal penalties for corporations is difficult to implement by judges when deciding cases, especially in corruption cases.
Surya further noted that even though Article 20 of Law No. 31 of 1999 on Corruption Eradication states that criminal penalties can be imposed on corporations, due to the lack of a sufficient regulatory framework, it is only on rare occasions that judges will implement such decisions.
“The procedure on how criminal penalties should be imposed on corporations should be enhanced by thecriminal code or criminal procedure law (KUHP and KUHAP),” added Surya.
To be more efficient, Surya argues that criminal penalties against corporations should be imposed in form of fines rather than imprisonment as the main sanction. Using this approach, the state could seize assets of convicted corporations to cover fines.
However, Surya warned that prosecutors must be very careful when advocating criminal cases against corporations.
“Prosecutors must include the company and its directors in the same bill of indictment to avoid disparity in the decisions made by different judges,” said Surya.
On the same occasion, Krisna Harapap, Corruption Ad Hoc Justice at the Supreme Court explained that there is nothing much that judges can do to make the law in any way clearer other than to ask prosecutors to produce solid indictments.
“If the prosecutor does not elaborate the criminal charges against the corporation in question in the indictment t, then the judges cannot impose such penalties,” contends Krisna.
In response to this issue, Bambang Widjojanto, Deputy Chairman of the KPK admitted that his institution rarely demands criminal penalties be imposed against a corporation when drafting a Bill of Indictment. However, in the future, Bambang will ensure that the KPK will put more focus on using provisions that provide for such measures.
“This idea has been our main point of discussion for a long time, in near future we will try to implement the relevant provision in several cases,” Bambang concluded.
(hot/kc)
Ali Salmande, Fathan Qorib, Robert Sidauruk
While there is a general consensus of opinion amongst all the Justices of the Supreme Court that they should enforce criminal penalties against corporations, there is also a further consensus that current laws and regulations are insufficient to allow them to actually do so.
Artidjo Alkostar, Chairman of the Criminal Division at the Supreme Court contends that current laws and regulations, which allow judges to impose criminal penalties against corporations, fail to provide clear direction as to how such actions are supposed to be implemented.
“For instance, although judges can impose criminal charges against a corporation, the question then is who will service the sentence? What about if the offence involves many perpetrators in a single corporation?” Artidjo said.
Likewise, Justice Surya Jaya admitted that the concept of criminal penalties for corporations is difficult to implement by judges when deciding cases, especially in corruption cases.
Surya further noted that even though Article 20 of Law No. 31 of 1999 on Corruption Eradication states that criminal penalties can be imposed on corporations, due to the lack of a sufficient regulatory framework, it is only on rare occasions that judges will implement such decisions.
“The procedure on how criminal penalties should be imposed on corporations should be enhanced by thecriminal code or criminal procedure law (KUHP and KUHAP),” added Surya.
To be more efficient, Surya argues that criminal penalties against corporations should be imposed in form of fines rather than imprisonment as the main sanction. Using this approach, the state could seize assets of convicted corporations to cover fines.
However, Surya warned that prosecutors must be very careful when advocating criminal cases against corporations.
“Prosecutors must include the company and its directors in the same bill of indictment to avoid disparity in the decisions made by different judges,” said Surya.
On the same occasion, Krisna Harapap, Corruption Ad Hoc Justice at the Supreme Court explained that there is nothing much that judges can do to make the law in any way clearer other than to ask prosecutors to produce solid indictments.
“If the prosecutor does not elaborate the criminal charges against the corporation in question in the indictment t, then the judges cannot impose such penalties,” contends Krisna.
In response to this issue, Bambang Widjojanto, Deputy Chairman of the KPK admitted that his institution rarely demands criminal penalties be imposed against a corporation when drafting a Bill of Indictment. However, in the future, Bambang will ensure that the KPK will put more focus on using provisions that provide for such measures.
“This idea has been our main point of discussion for a long time, in near future we will try to implement the relevant provision in several cases,” Bambang concluded.
(hot/kc)