PKB Legislator Claims Asset Seizure Without Court Ruling Violates Human Rights

Deputy Chair of PKB in Commission III of the House of Representatives (DPR RI), Hasbiallah Ilyas, considers asset seizure without a court decision to be a violation of human rights (HAM). He mentioned that this occurred in the case of one corruptor in 2019.

“Asset seizure is proposed and designed to confiscate assets from special criminal acts of corruption without waiting for a final criminal sentence imposed on the perpetrator. Clearly, this violates human rights, without a court decision,” said Hasbiallah during a meeting in Commission III of the DPR, DPR RI, Jakarta, on Monday (6/4/2026).

Hasbiallah then discussed one case from 2019. He stated that at that time, all assets of the corruption perpetrator were seized, even though not all of them came from corrupt acts.

“There was, Sir, one case that I don’t need to mention, a corruption case handled by the KPK, Sir. So many assets were taken, it happened in 2019, I won’t mention what the case was, all the corruptor’s assets from one ministry were taken, even though how many of those seized assets were legitimate ones, not corruption assets,” he said.

He mentioned that at that time, the KPK returned the assets that were not from corruption proceeds. According to him, those assets ultimately received a bad label because they had been seized by the KPK.

“After that, they were returned, but after being returned, the name is already tarnished, Sir. If it were goods, this is a factual case, those goods want to be sold, people wouldn’t dare, because they’ve been labelled ‘this was sealed because it’s corruption proceeds’, sealed by one of the law enforcement agencies,” he stated.

For that reason, Hasbiallah warned to be careful in drafting the Asset Seizure Bill. “So, what’s the solution according to your view, Sir? Because we must be careful in compiling and enacting this law; instead of the Asset Seizure Law strengthening the legal basis, it shouldn’t lead to arbitrariness occurring in law enforcement tools,” he added.