The Early Effectiveness of Plea Bargaining in Corruption Cases Under Indonesia’s New Criminal Procedure Code

Abstract

The enactment of Law Number 20 of 2025 concerning the Criminal Procedure Code (KUHAP) introduces fundamental changes to Indonesia’s criminal justice system, including the plea bargaining mechanism under Article 78. The mechanism is designed to promote a fast, simple, and low-cost judicial process, particularly for criminal cases that may require lengthy and complex proceedings. This study aims to analyze the normative construction of plea bargaining under the new Criminal Procedure Code and assess its early effectiveness in corruption cases from the perspectives of procedural efficiency, recovery of state financial losses, and legal certainty. This study employs a doctrinal legal research method supported by limited interview data, using statutory and conceptual approaches. The findings indicate that the application of plea bargaining to corruption cases is substantially limited by the requirement that the applicable maximum criminal penalty must not exceed five years, making the mechanism more relevant to lower-level corruption offences than major corruption cases. Limited interviews with village government officials further indicate that the recovery of state financial losses at the local level may be constrained by technical difficulties, institutional limitations, and reluctance to bring cases into formal legal proceedings. Plea bargaining therefore has potential to accelerate case resolution and facilitate earlier recovery of state financial losses, but its effectiveness remains conditional. Clear implementation guidelines, objective standards for compensation or restitution, prosecutorial discretion, and judicial supervision are necessary to prevent sentencing disparities, abuse of bargaining mechanisms, and the weakening of the principle of material truth in Indonesia’s criminal justice system.