Delpedro Files Constitutional Challenge Over Incitement and False News Provisions in the New Penal Code with the Constitutional Court

JAKARTA — The defendant in the case of alleged incitement of August 2025 demonstrations, Delpedro Marhaen Rismansyah, has filed a request for a judicial review of Law Number 1 of 2023 concerning the Criminal Code (KUHP) with the Constitutional Court (MK). Specifically, Delpedro is challenging the incitement provisions and the false information provisions contained in the new Criminal Code. ‘We are filing a material review relating to Article 246 on incitement, and Articles 263 and 264 on false information that are in the new Criminal Code. These are the provisions that currently entrap us,’ Delpedro said at the MK Building in Jakarta on Thursday, 5 March 2026. He said the articles are often used to criminalise citizens who express criticism. ‘Those broad articles actually were repealed earlier, but they are adopted back in the new Code and are also used to criminalise students who speak critically in public spaces,’ Delpedro said. Furthermore, Delpedro explained that the provisions on false information had previously been repealed by the MK through petitions by Haris Azhar and Fatia Maulidiyanti. Therefore, Delpedro again challenged them to the MK. ‘That was repealed in Law Number 1 of 1946, Articles 14 and 15. Then in the new KUHP these were adopted again. We ask for their annulment again, in line with the spirit of the previous constitution,’ he said. Next, Delpedro said the MK had asked for further interpretation about the incitement acts regulated in old Article 160 of the old KUHP. ‘In Article 246 this has not been accommodated to clearly indicate that what should be considered is not only the incitement act but also its consequences. So we push for that again,’ he said. ‘Thus, the spirit of the old KUHP, which was good through MK decisions, is not accommodated in the new KUHP. So we want to remind the government and persuade the court to provide interpretations consistent with previous constitutional jurisprudence for the new articles,’ he added. During this, Delpedro also said he remains subject to legal proceedings stemming from the August 2025 demonstrations for incitement and false information charges.