“Law enforcers must prove the suspect’s psychological condition because of two reasons: first, they must know the condition of the perpetrator when the crime occurs, in order to make sure whether the person can be held responsible for their actions or not; second, they must know the perpetrator’s condition during an investigation, to ensure that they are ready for interrogation, and to determine what type of support the law enforcers must provide, to ensure that that the investigation goes well, as well to ensure that the law enforcers themselves properly understand the information given to them by the perpetrator to ensure that justice is properly served,” Fajri said.
Article 44 Paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code regulates the “principle of justification”, which basically means that if a person suffers from a mental or psychological disorder when they perpetrate a criminal action, they are not responsible for such an action and cannot be charged with a crime. Furthermore, Paragraph 2 stipulates that a judge may order that the person be medicated or otherwise psychologically treated.
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“However, in order to arrive at the conclusion that a person suffers from a mental or psychological disorder when they perpetrated their crime cannot be made or guessed at by a layman. On the contrary, the perpetrator must first undergo expert examination, which shall be performed according to the procedure set in the Regulation of the Minister of Health Number 77 of 2015 concerning the Guidelines to Mental Health Checks for the Purpose of Law Enforcement,” Fajri said. (est)