Legal Literacy - Learn the important role of witness testimony in the criminal case evidence process. This article thoroughly reviews the evidentiary value, types of witnesses, and related legal provisions. Also find information about witnesses a de charge, a charge, mahkota, and de auditu. Understand how witness testimony can help judges achieve justice.

The Power of Witness Testimony Evidence

Based on Article 185 of the Criminal Procedure Code, witness testimony as evidence is what the witness states in court, focusing on problems related to evidence. Witness testimony evidence is the most important evidence in criminal cases, because evidence in criminal cases is to seek material truth or actual truth. The degree of evidence witness testimony has evidentiary value.

The testimony of several independent witnesses about an event can be used as valid evidence if the witness testimony has a relationship with each other in such a way that it is able to justify the existence of a particular event or situation (Article 185 paragraph (4) Criminal Procedure Code). This is called chain testimony (kettingbewijs), which is also mentioned in Article 300 paragraph (2) HIR.

For example, a witness testified that he saw the defendant at 12.00 WIB on April 1, 2018 walking on Jalan Kenanga, Jakarta. The second witness testified that he saw the defendant enter the yard of house number 7 on the street at approximately 19.00 WIB. The third witness testified that he saw the defendant waiting and taking a taxi at 20.00 WIB on April 1, 2018 on the side of Jalan Kenanga, Jakarta while carrying a television. The independent witness statements are chained and become evidence that the defendant stole B's television at house number 7 Jalan Kenanga Jakarta.