Extradition Lawyer in Bali: Denpasar District Court and the Local Procedure

Does Denpasar District Court cover all of Bali?

No. The official territorial-jurisdiction page of Pengadilan Negeri Denpasar Kelas IA (Denpasar District Court, Class IA), published in 2015, lists Denpasar City and Badung Regency, including Tuban and Kuta. That page is useful for understanding the former allocation, but it cannot alone establish the position in October 2026: Presidential Decree No. 39 of 2025 subsequently created Pengadilan Negeri Kabupaten Badung (Badung District Court). Article 27 of the Extradition Law still directs the prosecutor to the district court in the area where the person is detained. Venue therefore depends on the current court allocation and the actual custody record—not the island name, the place where the alleged offence occurred, or the family’s address.

What changed with the new Badung District Court?

Presidential Decree No. 39 of 2025, effective from 31 December 2025, established Badung District Court within the territorial area of Pengadilan Tinggi Denpasar (Denpasar High Court). Article 5 provides for phased operation. Under Articles 6–7, cases already examined but not decided by Denpasar remain there, while cases filed there but not yet examined transfer to Badung only after the new court is operational and the required transfer of personnel, assets, records and facilities is completed. On 23 October 2026, the official Denpasar High Court website published a notice inviting applications for secretariat posts at the new Badung court. The notice does not identify the operational start date or which extradition files, if any, have moved from Denpasar.

The Denpasar High Court’s current public website links to eight district courts in Bali—Denpasar, Negara, Singaraja, Tabanan, Semarapura, Gianyar, Bangli and Amlapura—but does not list Badung among those court links. That omission does not prove that the new court is not operating; alongside the staffing notice, it means the public information does not settle whether the operational conditions and transfer of extradition files are complete.

Accordingly, if a custody record identifies Tuban, Kuta or another place in Badung, counsel should promptly ask the competent prosecutor and both district-court registries to confirm the operative order, whether the new court has been operationalized for this type of case, and which court will receive the Article 27 application. Do not treat the 2015 Denpasar jurisdiction page as conclusive, and do not assume that I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport determines venue without checking where the person is legally recorded as detained.

Which Bali court should counsel contact?

The list of courts outside Denpasar and Badung is a routing aid, not a substitute for checking the current venue. The legal trigger is the district where the person is detained under Article 27. If the person is moved, ask counsel to check whether the court receiving the prosecutor’s application remains the proper court and whether a file has already been opened elsewhere.

Which local institutions are involved?

The Bali High Prosecutor’s Office has published information about Attorney General Regulation No. 006 of 2018 on handling extradition matters. That is prosecutorial guidance; it does not create a separate Bali-only extradition court procedure or replace the national statute.

What happens after an arrest, and which dates matter?

What will the court examine, and what does detention mean?

At the district court identified under Article 27, the hearing is ordinarily public unless the presiding judge considers a closed hearing necessary; the prosecutor attends and gives an opinion (Article 31). The examination under Articles 32–33 is a limited extradition determination, not a trial of guilt in the requesting state. The nationwide refusal grounds and evidence needed to raise them are addressed on the Indonesia challenge page.

Before the hearing, counsel should obtain the summons and service record, custody order, BAP and the date the prosecutor received it, the prosecutor’s filing, the foreign warrant or final judgment, identity and nationality documents, reliable translations, and any Indonesian final judgment or records of a proceeding involving the same conduct. Request an Indonesian-language interpreter if needed. Keep a challenge to the legal basis of detention separate from the court’s determination whether extradition may proceed; the legal tests and possible remedies are not interchangeable.

Provisional arrest under Articles 18–21 is different from detention after a formal request under Article 25. Because Law No. 20 of 2025 replaced the former Criminal Procedure Code from 2 January 2026, counsel should check the actual custody order and current law before assuming that an ordinary pretrial review mechanism applies to extradition detention. The nationwide detention framework is covered in the Indonesia guide.

Who makes the final decision, and is there an appeal?

The district court’s determination under Article 33 is sent to the Ministry; Article 36 places the final decision to grant or refuse extradition with the President. The court determination is therefore not itself the final surrender decision.

Law No. 1 of 1979 does not expressly state a conventional appeal route or deadline from the Article 33 determination. The publicly accessible official sources do not establish whether a Denpasar-specific appellate ruling recognizes such a route. Counsel should examine the written determination and its notification date, any applicable treaty, and current controlling authority before selecting a remedy; do not assume either that an ordinary appeal is available or that no remedy exists. For nationwide refusal grounds and challenge routes, see How to Stop Extradition from Indonesia; the national sequence is explained in Extradition from Indonesia.

What should the family do first?

1. Confirm the legal custody record. Obtain the full name as recorded, nationality, passport details, arrest time, exact place of detention, police unit, detention order and any case number. Do not rely only on the airport where the person arrived.
2. Identify the route. Ask whether the person is subject to an INTERPOL Red Notice, provisional arrest, a formal extradition request, immigration detention or a domestic criminal investigation. A Red Notice is not itself an international arrest warrant, and immigration removal is different from extradition. See the legal effect of a Red Notice and extradition versus deportation.
3. Confirm the correct court. If the record says Denpasar City, ask the Denpasar criminal registry about the file. If it says Tuban, Kuta or another place in Badung, have counsel confirm the current operational and transfer position of Badung District Court with the prosecutor and both registries.
4. Preserve the statutory dates. Record when the police examination record reached the prosecutor, when the application was filed and when the summons was received. The seven-day clock in Article 27 does not automatically start at arrest; the three-day notice in Article 29 is measured back from the hearing.
5. Prepare a focused file. Give counsel identity documents, the foreign warrant or judgment, the summons, translations, medical needs, and records relevant to identity, an Indonesian proceeding, limitation or a death-penalty assurance. Ask for a suitable interpreter and, where appropriate, consular contact.

Hypothetical example: A visitor is stopped after arriving at I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport, and the custody record names Tuban, Badung. The family should not assume that the old Denpasar jurisdiction page settles venue: Keppres No. 39/2025 created Badung District Court, while the published October 2026 staffing notice does not confirm the transfer date for extradition files. Counsel should verify the current filing court and the prosecutor’s receipt date for the BAP immediately. If the record instead shows detention within Denpasar City, ask the Denpasar registry to confirm whether the Article 27 application has been filed there.

Do not assume that a foreign national is held at Rumah Detensi Imigrasi Denpasar. Its official description concerns foreign nationals subject to immigration administrative measures; that does not establish that it holds people detained under extradition orders. Confirm the actual facility and legal basis through counsel or the responsible authority.

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