Government Urged to Issue Implementing Regulations for New Criminal Code

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Professor Andi Muhamad Asrun, an academic from Pakuan University in Bogor, West Java, has urged the government to promptly issue the implementing regulations for the National Criminal Code (KUHP) and Criminal Procedure Code (KUHAP), which officially came into force in January 2026.

According to the Professor of Constitutional Law at the university’s Graduate School, the failure to issue these implementing regulations will create obstacles in their implementation.

“In my view, the government must promptly issue the government regulations required by several articles of the KUHAP and KUHP. Without them, this becomes an obstacle to several aspects of legal implementation,” Asrun said when contacted in Jakarta on Friday.

He described the KUHP and National KUHAP as excellent works produced by the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR RI) through its Commission III.

Implementation of the KUHP and National KUHAP, he continued, is no longer the DPR’s responsibility but that of the relevant ministries, working in cooperation with the State Secretary or Cabinet Secretary.

“So this excellent work must not be marred by these technical issues. These government regulations are the government’s responsibility,” he said.

Asrun said the implementing regulations must be expedited because the KUHAP and KUHP require considerable guidance, such as clarification that acquittals can be appealed through cassation.

“This must be further clarified as part of procedural law. And that is the government’s task,” said Asrun, who is also a member of the Judicial Commission’s Judge Recruitment Division.

Separately, Asrun noted that the existence of a national KUHAP provides the formal historical foundation for the enforcement of the national KUHP.

The KUHP and KUHAP represent a major achievement of Commission III of the DPR RI, which will become a legacy for the administration of President Prabowo Subianto and Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka.

The absence of government regulations related to the National KUHP and KUHAP was also highlighted by Commission XIII member Agun Gunandjar Sudarta during a working meeting on the Ministry of Law’s 2026 state budget audit report at Senayan on Wednesday (15 July).

Agun questioned why the budget absorption for the KUHP draft government regulation (RPP) in the Ministry of Law’s 2025 expenditure budget had reached 100 per cent, yet the RPP had still not been issued three years after the National KUHP was passed.

The RPP concerns the Living Law under Government Regulation (PP) Number 55 of 2025, while the RPPs on penal commutation, as well as penalties and sanctions, remain under discussion.

“Of the three government regulations, one has been issued, namely the one on the Living Law under PP Number 5 of 2025,” Eddy said.

He said his office is currently deliberating the PP on the Criminal Procedure Code (KUHAP), which contains 253 articles with 25 delegations. One of the articles regulated in detail concerns seizure of assets.