Indonesia - November 2025

Indonesia’s Constitutional Court ruled on 17 November that the practice of police officers holding additional government jobs is unconstitutional. The 2002 National Police Law contained two conflicting provisions on whether police officers could hold another government job simultaneously, and the ruling struck down the passage, which the justices ruled created legal ambiguity. Over 4,000 police officers hold second government jobs, about 300 of whom are in high-ranking managerial positions. Appointments of the latter have become more common under President Prabowo Subianto, and the ruling was welcomed by democracy advocates as part of preventing a return to the ‘dual function’ role of the security forces of Sukarno-era Indonesia.

Update: A National Police regulation decreed on 9 December was criticized by constitutional law experts as disobeying the Constitutional Court’s decision. The decree allows officers to take on government jobs relevant to police work that are requested by the employing institutions. A spokesperson for the National Police said Article 28(3) of the National Police Law allows for such postings and remains in force despite the Court’s ruling, but allowed that officers will be ‘reassigned’ after taking any such posting to prevent a police officer from holding two jobs simultaneously. However, critics maintain the purpose of the ruling was to prevent active-duty police from holding civilian roles indefinitely–a practice which the new decree explicitly allows.

Sources: Jakarta Post (1), Jakarta Post (2), Jakarta Post (3)

Indonesia’s House of Representatives passed the Criminal Procedure Bill (KUHAP) into law on 18 November, the most broad-reaching changes to procedural criminal law in 40 years. Civil society critics and legal experts say the bill transfers too much investigatory authority to the police, at the expense of judicial or parliamentary oversight. The government maintains the changes are needed to streamline outdated processes. For example, police will now be able to search and seize assets, conduct surveillance and authorize wiretaps without prosecutorial permission or oversight. Civil society experts have criticized the process of the bill’s passage, saying that it was only made public hours before passing into law and the parliament misled the public about the scale of civil society involvement, and have urged President Prabowo Subianto to repeal it.

Sources: Tempo, Jakarta Post, Fulcrum

Four West Papua independence activists from Sorong on the island of Guinea were sentenced to seven months’ imprisonment on treason charges on 20 November. Advocates say the sentences are a case of the criminalization of freedom of expression. The four men presented themselves at a local Indonesian government office on 14 April, 2025 as representatives of the unrecognized state of Federal Republic of West Papua (NFRPB) and delivered a letter seeking talks between the Indonesian government and the NFRPB to resolve the ongoing West Papuan separatist conflict. The men were arrested two weeks later and placed in pretrial detention. Their detention and transfer to a more distant prison triggered local protests which, in some instances, became violent. Human rights advocates say the interpretation of treason is inconsistent with Indonesia’s international treaty obligations, as the four men were not armed, did not threaten or call for violence, and did not call on others to support West Papuan secession. The defendants declined to appeal as, due to the length of their pre-trial incarceration, they were due to be released on 28 November, 2025. 

Sources: Radio New Zealand, Human Rights Monitor, Tapol, IDN Times, Amnesty International Indonesia