Jakarta. Indonesia’s Constitutional Court has ruled that criminal complaints over alleged insults against the president or vice president can only be filed by the official who is the target of the alleged offense, barring family members, supporters and political volunteers from initiating cases.

The ruling, issued Wednesday in case No. 275/PUU-XXIII/2025, reviewed provisions of Indonesia’s 2025 Criminal Procedure Code (KUHAP) concerning complaints over alleged insults against the country’s top two officials.

Article 218 of Indonesia’s updated Criminal Code (KUHP) criminalizes public insults against the president or vice president, with violations punishable by up to three years in prison.

Chief Justice Suhartoyo said the court partially granted the petition challenging the provision.

The court found that wording in Article 220(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code could create ambiguity over who is entitled to file a complaint. The provision previously stated that a complaint could be submitted in writing by the president or vice president.

Constitutional Justice Guntur Hamzah said the court considered it necessary to clarify that only the president and/or vice president concerned could file such a complaint.

"This is to ensure there is no room for other parties — including family members, sympathizers, supporters, volunteers or other third parties — acting in the name of the president and/or vice president to initiate criminal proceedings based on their own assessment of whether an insult has occurred," Guntur said while reading the ruling.

Under the ruling, law enforcement can only proceed after the president or vice president who is the alleged target submits a written complaint. 

The decision does not, however, strike down the criminal provisions concerning insults against the president and vice president.

Articles 218 and 219 of the Criminal Code, which criminalize insulting the president or vice president and disseminating such insults, remain in force.

The court instead altered the interpretation of Article 220(1) to specify that offenses under Articles 218 and 219 can only be prosecuted based on a complaint filed by the president and/or vice president concerned.

The ruling effectively makes the offenses complaint-based crimes, meaning authorities cannot initiate prosecution solely because a third party believes the president or vice president has been insulted.

The decision comes amid broader scrutiny in Indonesia over criminal provisions governing speech and criticism of public officials. Critics of such provisions have raised concerns that vaguely defined offenses could be used to restrict freedom of expression, while the government has maintained that legal protections are necessary to safeguard the dignity of state institutions and public officials.

The Constitutional Court's ruling does not remove the offense from Indonesia's criminal law but places a clear limitation on who can trigger its prosecution.

The ruling could affect cases in which third parties have sought to report alleged insults against the president. In June, for example, Garda Prabowo, a group supporting President Prabowo Subianto, filed a public complaint with the National Police's Criminal Investigation Department against former Universitas Gadjah Mada student executive body chairman Tiyo Ardianto, alleging that his remarks about the president amounted to insult.

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