Don't Turn the Law Into an Industry: Security Minister Mahfud MD
Jakarta. The Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Muhammad Mahfud MD has called out law enforcers for playing around with the law and creating what he called "the law industry." Mahfud made the statement at the start of an Attorney General's Office conference in Cianjur, West Java, on Tuesday.
"The law should be enforced to provide legal certainty and justice, not to satisfy the whims of this law industry," Mahfud told the press later in the day in Jakarta.
He said the law is now often used as a "vehicle" for certain people who can steer it to their own advantage.
"A case can be fabricated for someone who has no case to answer. An innocent person can be made guilty, and a guilty criminal can be made innocent," the minister said.
He mentioned as an example a person who had already won a case but then was forced to face accusations in another case.
"This person had won his trial but was charged again for allegedly falsifying his evidence. If a person won a case with false evidence, the fault is with the judges," the former Constitutional Court chief justice said.
Mahfud mentioned another example of a person involved in a civil case who won his trial and had the verdict upheld in the Supreme Court.
"But later on, law enforcement officers sued the person and turned the case into a criminal one. This is why it's important for every law enforcer – the police, judge, prosecutor – to stop treating the law like an industry," he said.
The meeting in Cianjur was attended by Attorney General Sanitiar "ST" Burhanuddin, Deputy Attorney General Arminsyah, Chief Prosecutor Muhammad Prasetyo and first echelon officials of the AGO.
Tags: Keywords: