ABSTRACT
It is a common practice in the Indonesian justice system for the criminal suspect to be presented to the public before the news media. The suspect, usually in handcuffs, will be standing behind a table on which there are spread evidentiary objects and other items seized at the time of arrest. The event usually combines the presentation of the suspect with a press conference. Sometimes, the suspect can even be questioned by the media. It is, in fact, an event orchestrated by the authorities to demonstrate to the public the effectiveness of law enforcement. Moreover, the public is more than happy to see that justice is apparently being served. This practice raises a significant question that has increasingly gone unnoticed. The presentation of the suspect triggers a risk that the orchestrated event can be manipulated to cast an impression of guilt on the suspect before their trial has even begun. In effect, the suspect is already tried by the public once they are displayed in handcuffs or a detention uniform. This is where the paradox of the presumption of innocence begins. This paper proposes that the presumption of innocence needs to be reconsidered at a practical level, especially in the case of presentation of suspects. This paper also analyses the twofold interpretation of the presumption of innocence principle: from the suspect’s point of view, where the violation of rights and freedoms can be deemed a violation of the presumption of innocence, and the presumption of innocence merely as a limited normative meaning.
