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VISTORBELITUNG.COM,The practice of "santet" a form of black magic or witchcraft deeply rooted in Indonesian folklore has officially been incorporated into the country's legal framework with the ratification of the New Indonesian Criminal Code (KUHP), set to fully take effect in 2026. Specifically, Article 252 criminalizes the use of occult power to inflict harm, a move that signals a significant and controversial shift in Indonesia's legal landscape.
📜 Article 252: Targeting the Practitioners
The new article does not necessarily target the mystical act of santet itself, but rather the practitioners (often referred to as 'dukun' or shamans) who claim to possess such supernatural powers and offer services to cause physical or mental suffering, illness, or death to others.
Article 252 stipulates that anyone who declares themselves to possess supernatural powers and offers services to others that could cause "illness, death, mental or physical suffering of a person" shall be punished with imprisonment for a maximum of five years.
💡 The Rationale Behind Criminalization
For decades, the issue of santet presented a complex challenge for law enforcement. While beliefs in black magic are widespread, the existing Dutch-era Criminal Code lacked specific provisions to address it, often leading to:
Vigilantism (Eigenrichting): Communities frequently took the law into their own hands against individuals accused of being practitioners, resulting in violent, and sometimes deadly, mob justice.
Legal Vacuum: Law enforcement struggled to prosecute or deter individuals who offered harmful black magic services, as the act itself was difficult to prove under conventional criminal law.
The inclusion of Article 252 aims to fill this legal vacuum and, crucially, prevent vigilantism by providing a formal legal channel to address the crime. It intends to protect the community from both the supposed magical harm and the real physical harm caused by public disorder.
🚧 Challenges of Proof and Controversy
Despite the goal of preventing social unrest, the article has sparked considerable debate:
The Problem of Proof: The main controversy revolves around the difficulty of proving a crime rooted in the mystical. How can a public prosecutor scientifically prove that a shaman’s spell or ritual was the direct cause of a victim's suffering or death? Legal experts argue that the emphasis must be placed on the perpetrator's deceptive claims and actions professing the ability to harm and offering the service rather than the actual mystical outcome.
Potential for Misuse: Critics worry that the article could be exploited for arbitrary criminalization, potentially targeting innocent people based on hearsay, personal grudges, or superstitious accusations, especially in remote areas.
🔮 Witches and Shamans Under Scrutiny
With the impending enactment of the new KUHP, the message is clear: those who make a living by publicly offering santet or black magic services that promise to inflict harm now face real-world legal consequences. While the article acknowledges the cultural reality of black magic belief in Indonesia, it establishes a firm boundary: profiting from and offering services to inflict supernatural harm is now a crime punishable by time in a cage.
The new law represents Indonesia's attempt to reconcile deeply held traditional beliefs with a modern, rational legal system, aiming to bring an end to the brutal vigilante actions that have plagued some communities.