The New Criminal Procedure Code Closes the Path to Cassation Against Acquittals

Normatively, Yusril's stated position refers to Article 299 paragraph (2) of Law Number 20 of 2025 concerning the Criminal Procedure Code. In that provision, the submission of a cassation review cannot be filed against several types of decisions, including an acquittal. The formulation also includes other exceptions, such as decisions in the form of judicial pardon, decisions in the form of actions, decisions for certain criminal acts with lighter threats, and decisions examined by summary proceedings. The wording of the norm is widely quoted in news reports and is in line with Yusril's statement.

In the uploaded legislative materials, the citation mapping shows that Article 41 of the previous provision, the reference is changed to Article 299 in the new law. Although the explanation of the Law only briefly states “sufficiently clear” for Article 299, the reference to that article is indeed the basis used by Yusril when stating that the acquittal of Delpedro et al. can no longer be appealed.

Law Number 1 of 2023 (9)

Substantially, Yusril's statement is important because it touches on one of the fundamental changes in Indonesian criminal procedure law: a stricter limitation on extraordinary legal remedies against acquittals. If this interpretation is consistently applied, the old practice of opening up space for cassation against acquittals with various doctrinal constructions will become increasingly difficult to maintain. This means that the Delpedro et al. case is not only relevant to the defendants, but also has the potential to be an initial marker of how new Criminal Procedure Code begins to work in practice.