Reconstructing Digital-Forensic Authentication of Electronic Evidence in AI-Era Criminal Proceedings

The development of artificial intelligence (AI) increases the risk of manipulating electronic evidence, while Article 235 of Law Number 20 of 2025 concerning the Criminal Procedure Code has not regulated in detail the technical mechanism for authentication. This research aims to analyze the adequacy of the authentication arrangement of electronic evidence and reconstruct the mechanism that ensures the reliability of criminal evidence in the AI era. The research uses normative legal methods with legislative, conceptual, and comparative approaches. Legal materials are collected through literature studies and analyzed qualitatively-prescriptively. Authentication arrangements are inadequate because the judge's authority is not balanced by technical examination standards, the support of digital forensic experts, and an integrated verification infrastructure. The research offers a forensically supported judicial authentication model through the Supreme Court Regulation (PERMA) and the Electronic Evidence Authentication System (EEAS). This model integrates evidence preservation, hash verification, metadata and provenance checks, AI manipulation detection, expert verification, and judicial assessment. The reliability of proof requires the integration of legal norms, technical competence, and institutional support. The novelty of the research lies in the reconstruction of layered authentication that connects the authority of judges with standardized forensic digital verification without shifting decision-making authority from judges.