The Indonesian bishops’ spokesman on justice has supported legal experts who are demanding changes to the country’s witness and victim protection laws.

An article of the laws currently states that a witness who is also an accused suspect in the same case cannot be exempted from criminal charges if found guilty.

“That needs to be amended,” said Father Serafin Danny Sanusi. “A suspect cannot be a witness at the same time.” The Crosier priest added that the article is also inconsistent with the 1945 Constitution.

His comments followed a judicial review of the article in Jakarta’s Constitutional Court on Aug. 18.

During the hearing, Saldi Isra, a professor at Andalas University maintained that reform is needed because the article is often helpful to the perpetrators of major crimes such as corruption.

“People are refusing to be witnesses in these big cases because they’re afraid they’ll have to deal with powerful opponents and government structures,” he said.

“The article has the potential to remove legal certainty as long as it allows someone to be considered a witness and a participant in the criminal act,” another legal expert told the gathering.

The judicial review was instigated by Commissioner General Susno Duadji, the country’s former national police chief, who claims he was unjustly named as a suspect in a graft case.

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