The Effectiveness of Virtual Trials for Criminal Proceeding as an Effort to Mitigate the Spread of Corona Virus During the Covid-19 Pandemic

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.210506.027How to use a DOI?

Keywords

virtual trial, criminal proceeding, covid-19 pandemic, effectiveness

Abstract

The first case of Covid-19 in Indonesia was found on 2 March 2020. Although enforcing health protocol is essential in this situation, the law enforcement to the community could not be set aside, especially for criminal proceeding highly related to human rights. Therefore, following the rise of the domestic cases, the Indonesia Supreme Court in cooperation with the Attorney General and the Ministry of Law and Human Rights has agreed to conclude an MOU deciding that during the Covid-19 Pandemic, the criminal proceeding will be conducted through virtual trial to mitigate the spread of the virus. It has been performed for approximately seven months and it is still ongoing. This is not a new practice in our court system as Supreme Court already has the e-court and e-Litigation programs long before the pandemic. Nevertheless, it focused on private proceedings instead of a criminal proceeding and it still has limited roles. This research aims to analyze the effectiveness of virtual trials for criminal proceedings during the Covid-19 pandemic in General Courts by using a normative-empirical approach. The results of the research show that although the criminal proceedings have been conducted through virtual trials, it does not reduce the rights of the accused to seek justice. Furthermore, it has both advantages and disadvantages. Virtual trials help reduce the physical contact in court particularly in criminal proceedings. Thus, it helps mitigate the spread of virus among the judges, court staff, prosecutors, advocates, and the accused. However, the lack of facilities in relevant places such as courts, prosecutor offices, prisons, and detention houses becomes obstacle in carrying out the trial process. Virtual criminal proceedings also make it difficult for public prosecutors, judges, and advocates to gather facts through questions to the accused. Moreover, several aspects should be addressed and improved to provide better legal services to society.

Copyright

© 2021, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Fadilla Jamila
AU  - Melantik Rompegading
AU  - Wahyu Hidayat
PY  - 2021
DA  - 2021/05/08
TI  - The Effectiveness of Virtual Trials for Criminal Proceeding as an Effort to Mitigate the Spread of Corona Virus During the Covid-19 Pandemic
BT  - Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Law and Human Rights 2020 (ICLHR 2020)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 191
EP  - 199
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.210506.027
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.210506.027
ID  - Jamila2021
ER  -