An Analysis of Gorontalo District Court's Decision on White-Collar Employment Embezzlement (A Study of Case No. 16/PID.SUS-TPK/2024/PN GTO)
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This article critically examines the legitimacy of imposing minimum sentences in corruption cases by focusing on the Gorontalo District Court Decision concerning a major bureaucratic employment embezzlement case. By employing a normative legal method that utilizes statutory, case, and conceptual approaches, this research evaluates judicial discretion through the antinomy of legal purposes. The results demonstrate that while the verdict fulfills formal legal certainty, it fundamentally distorts substantive justice and social utility by completely neglecting the severe intentions of bureaucratic offenders. The application of minimum sanctions ultimately fails to provide any meaningful deterrent effect. The discussion highlights an urgent necessity to reconstruct the absolute boundaries of judicial discretion. This reconstruction must strictly align with the gravity of offense principle mandated by the United Nations Convention Against Corruption and the integrative sentencing paradigm of the new Indonesian Criminal Code. Therefore, establishing rigid sentencing guidelines remains highly imperative for all future judicial verdicts.
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