Soldiers accused of ordinary crimes belong in ordinary courts, Indonesia's top court rules

Two citizens, Lenny Damanik and Eva Melina Br. Pasaribu, asked Indonesia's Constitutional Court to review a 1997 law — and on 15 October the court agreed with the heart of their case. Under the current Military Judiciary Law, a soldier accused of an ordinary crime against a civilian is tried by a military court simply because of who the accused is, not what the offence is. The court declared the law conditionally inconsistent with the constitution's guarantees of an independent judiciary and equality before the law, and gave parliament and the government two years — until October 2028 — to rewrite it: clarifying which offences are truly military, which court has jurisdiction, and how military justice should work as a whole.

SDG 16 · Peace, justice and strong institutions — Mechanism: legal ruling