Constitutional Court Rejects Delpedro's Lawsuit on Incitement Provisions in Criminal Code
The lawsuit against Law No. 1 of 2023 regarding the incitement and hoax dissemination provisions, filed by Lokataru Executive Director Delpedro Marhaen and staff member Muzaffar Salim, was not accepted by the Constitutional Court (MK). The MK stated that the lawsuit was unclear.
“The operative part of the decision rules to adjudicate, stating that the petitioners’ application is not accepted,” said MK Chief Justice Suhartoyo during the decision hearing in the Plenary Session Room of MK Building I, Central Jakarta, quoted from detikNews, Thursday (16/4/2026).
MK Justice Liliek Prisbawono explained the court’s considerations in this decision. He noted that in the legal standing section, the petitioners only clearly outlined the constitutional rights they believed were harmed by Article 246 of Law No. 1 of 2023.
However, Liliek said, the petitioners did not explain the alleged harm to constitutional rights concerning the application of the norms in Article 263 Paragraphs 1 and 2, as well as Article 264 of Law No. 1 of 2023.
“Whereas, the explanation of constitutional harm and the causal verbal relationship between the application of the challenged law norms and the essential rights is crucial in outlining the harm or constitutional rights harm,” Liliek explained.
Liliek explained that the model of petitum number 2 submitted by the petitioners is an unusual formulation in applications for judicial review of laws against the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia.
“Normally, if seeking to annul an entire law norm, the petitum is formulated by stating that the said law norm contradicts the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia and has no binding legal force,” Liliek stated.
According to Liliek, the model of petitum number 2 by the petitioners was deemed difficult to understand. In this regard, he said, the petitioners were unclear in requesting the deletion or amendment of the content of Article 246 of the Criminal Code.
“Based on all the legal considerations outlined above, although the Court has jurisdiction to adjudicate the petitioners’ case, however, because the petitioners do not have legal standing to file the aforementioned application,” he said.
As is known, Delpedro and Muzaffar filed a lawsuit against several articles in Law No. 1/2023 on the Criminal Code. The challenged articles include those on incitement and the dissemination of hoaxes.
Viewed from the official MK website, Friday (6/3/2026), the lawsuit is registered under number 93/PUU-XXIV/2026. They filed the lawsuit against Article 246, Article 264 paragraphs (1) and (2), and Article 264.
Here are the contents of the challenged articles:
Article 246
Any person who, in public by word of mouth or writing:
incites people to commit a criminal act; or
incites people to resist the public authority with violence,
shall be punished with imprisonment for a maximum of 4 years or a fine of at most category V (Rp 500 million).
Article 263
Any person who disseminates or spreads news or information, knowing that such news or information is false, which causes unrest in society, shall be punished with imprisonment for a maximum of 6 (six) years or a fine of at most category V (Rp 500 million).
Any person who disseminates or spreads news or information, where it is reasonable to suspect that such news or information is false and may cause unrest in society, shall be punished with imprisonment for a maximum of 4 (four) years or a fine of at most category IV (Rp 200 million).
Article 264
Any person who disseminates news that is uncertain, exaggerated, or incomplete, where it is known or reasonably suspected that such news may cause unrest in society, shall be punished with imprisonment for a maximum of 2 (two) years or a fine of at most category III (Rp 50 million).
Delpedro and Muzaffar asked the MK to declare these articles contrary to the 1945 Constitution and to have no binding legal force, i.e., to be removed from the Criminal Code.
The petitioners stated that they became defendants for allegedly violating Article 246 of the Criminal Code related to suspected incitement and Article 45 paragraph 3 of the ITE Law related to suspected dissemination of false news. According to the petitioners, the content in both charged articles is also found in the challenged articles.
“The content of those articles is similar to Articles 263 and 264 of the Criminal Code currently being reviewed by the petitioners,” stated the petitioners.
The petitioners assessed that the existence of the challenged articles has the potential to cause constitutional harm to them in the future. The petitioners described the harm as obstructing the right to recognition, guarantee, protection, and fair legal certainty.
“The petitioners also lose the opportunity to exercise freedom of expression as guaranteed by the 1945 Constitution and the principle of the rule of law,” stated the petitioners.
Recently, Delpedro and Muzaffar underwent a verdict hearing in the incitement case stemming from a chaotic demonstration. They were acquitted.