Criminal Act of Forgery of Letter in Village Head Elections in Lhok Village Kulam, Jeunieb District, Bireuen District Case Study (Case Study of Supreme Court Decision No. 431 K/Pid/2021

Abstract

Abstract. Village head elections are often marred by various alleged violations. One of the alleged violations is the provision of false information in documents, document forgery, and using fake documents or letters as a requirement to run as village head. As happened in the village head election in Lhok Kulam Village, Jeunieb District, Bireuen Regency. The winning candidate for the village head election was forced to be canceled after he was sentenced to 6 (six) months in prison through Supreme Court decision No. 431 K/Pid/202. The decision stated that the person concerned was proven to have used fake documents according to Article 362 paragraph (2) when registering as a candidate for village head in the local village. This study aims to determine the legal concept of forgery of letters in the positive Criminal Code and the new Criminal Code, as well as to find out and analyze the results of the judge's legal considerations in the decision. This writing uses a normative legal research method. The results of the study show that the Supreme Court Judge through the Supreme Court decision Number. 431 K/PID/2021 which strengthens the decision of the court at the judex facti level in the case, considers that the defendant was proven guilty in the case because there was no excuse even though the person concerned did not have mens rea to commit the crime of using fake documents. However, the criminalization of the defendant should have been avoided if the village head election committee had verified the nomination files seriously, especially since this case emerged after Nurdin Ahmad was inaugurated as the local village head