New Era

Strict Limitations in the Criminal Procedure Code of 2025

Responding to the confusion and practices of serial pre-trial maneuvers, the Criminal Procedure Code of 2025 (Law No. 20 of 2025)—which revokes Law No. 8 of 1981 and has been effective since January 2, 2026—brings significant material changes.

The Criminal Procedure Code of 2025 essentially codifies the restriction that a request to examine the validity of a specific coercive measure can only be filed once for the same matter. Consequently, a second request attacking the same coercive measure is essentially statutorily barred and is very likely to be rejected or deemed inadmissible due to repetitiveness.

When is a Second Pre-Trial Still Possible?

The restriction should not completely eliminate the right to defense. Therefore, a subsequent pre-trial in a criminal case may still be accepted as long as the object is truly different, or there are new circumstances that create a new dispute. For example:

  1. There is a new action/object
    Example: after the first pre-trial is completed, the investigator issues a letter of investigation commencement (sprindik) or a new letter designating a suspect . This new product of action can create a different object of pre-trial from the previous request.

  2. Different stages with new requests
    Both the practice under the old Criminal Procedure Code and the framework of the new Criminal Procedure Code maintain the idea that pre-trial at the investigation stage does not automatically preclude pre-trial at the prosecution stage, as long as it is filed with new request and does not repeat identical objects.

  3. A completely different issue
    For example, a foreclosure dispute over goods belonging to a third party unrelated to the crime, or other procedural issues that stand alone and are not identical to the previous application.

Conclusion

The presence of the Criminal Procedure Code of 2025 provides legal certainty to end the long debate regarding serial pre-trial motions. For justice seekers and advocates, pre-trial is no longer a “shortcut to try their luck repeatedly” on the same coercive measures—because the opportunity to sue is now, in principle, locked once.

However, the court doors remain open if law enforcement issues new actions or if there is a shift in the object of the dispute that is purely different. The key is simple: prove its novelty—not just resubmitting an old application with a changed “wrapper”.