Antiterrorism bill should not be retroactive: Official

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The antiterrorism bill the government submitted to the House of Representatives (DPR) on Thursday does not leave any room for the adoption of the retroactive principle, a government official said Sunday.

Director of law and legislation at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights Abdul Gani Abdullah said that unlike the current government regulations in lieu of law No. 1/2002 on antiterrorism, the antiterrorism bill did not recognize the retroactive principle.

"We did not use the retroactive principle in the general antiterrorism bill ... we will apply it in the special bill to solve the Oct. 12 terrorist attack on Bali," Abdul Gani told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

The government submitted on Thursday four antiterrorism bills to the House for deliberation. Two bills pertain to two government regulations in lieu of law, one antiterrorism bill, and the other one on the implementation of an antiterrorism law on the Oct. 12 terrorist attacks in Bali which killed more than 190 people and injured over 300 others.

Abdul Wahid, director of law formulation at the ministry, told the Post on Sunday that there was no clause linking the antiterrorism bill with the one on the implementation of the antiterrorism bill in the Bali attacks.

"Basically it's not right to implement the retroactive principle but I think we'll leave it to the House to decide whether or not to use the principle," Abdul Wahid said.

At present, the country has two government regulations in lieu of law on antiterrorism and an antiterrorism act on the Bali bombing attack issued as an emergency response to the Oct. 12 Bali bombing.

But due to their nature, the rulings will only be in force until a law is enacted.

According to Abdul Gani, the antiterrorism bill was slightly different from the regulation in lieu of law.

Under the bill, an intelligence report must be approved by the National Intelligence Agency chief before judges declare it as preliminary evidence to arrest a terrorist suspect, he said.

The article had sparked protests from human rights activists, fearing that it would be abused by those in power to seize people arbitrarily without concrete evidence.

There was also a clause that allowed witnesses to use teleconferencing should he or she be unable to come to court.

The government urged the House to prioritize the deliberation of the antiterrorism bill rather than three other bills. The government said it wanted the antiterrorism bill to be signed into law by the end of the year at the latest.

Meanwhile, legislators were divided on Sunday over the use of the retroactive principle in the antiterrorism bill.

Yasril Ananta Baharuddin of the Golkar faction said retroactive principle must be used to try perpetrators of the Bali bombing attacks.

"There's no other way but to add the clause to the bill. We need the retroactive clause for such an extraordinary crime that we have never before experienced," he told the Post

He, however, added that an extra cause stipulating that the retroactive principle would be used to try the culprits of the Bali attacks must also be added in the bill.

Imam Addaruqutni of the Reform faction, however, rejected the inclusion of retroactive principle in the antiterrorism bill, saying that no law was ever enacted to try past crimes.

"I think we can try the perpetrators and masterminds of the Bali blasts using the Criminal Code, Criminal Procedures Code and international conventions," he said.

Ori Rahman of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) and Fadjrul Falaakh of the National Law Commission (KHN) said earlier that all perpetrators of terrorist activities could be charged under the Criminal Code particularly articles 187 and 340.

Article 187 of the code stipulates that those who intentionally cause explosions and fires could face life imprisonment.

Article 340 states that those who commit premeditated murder could face the death penalty.