JAKARTA: The prison sentences sought by Attorney General’s Office (AGO) prosecutors for four activists accused of inciting nationwide riots in August of last year has drawn strong criticism from rights groups, which denounced the prosecution as an attempt to silence government critics.
Last Friday (Feb 27), prosecutors demanded the Central Jakarta District Court sentence Lokataru Foundation director Delpedro Marhaen and staff member Muzaffar Salim, online activist Syahdan Husein from student movement Gejayan Memanggil and Riau University student Khariq Anhar to two years in prison.
Prosecutors said the defendants had spearheaded social media campaigns that incited “hatred and hostility” toward the government during the anti-government protests between late August and early September of last year that intensified into violence after the police killing of a bystander.
The four activists, who have been in detention since early September last year, were accused of violating the Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law and the Criminal Code (KUHP). They had published 19 “provocative” posts on social media using hashtags such as #indonesiagelap (dark Indonesia) and #reformasipolri (let’s reform the police), according to prosecutors.
Civil groups have since slammed the prosecution, such as pro-democracy group Gerakan Nurani Bangsa (National Conscience Movement), whose members include prominent interfaith figures such as former first lady Sinta Nuriyah Wahid and former religious affairs minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin. The GNB urged the court to acquit the activists.
“We request the panel of judges to clear the defendants of all charges and find them innocent,” GNB representative Lukman told The Jakarta Post on Sunday, adding that the group is also preparing an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief in support of the activists.
In a statement on Friday, Amnesty International Indonesia executive director Usman Hamid criticized the AGO for “malicious prosecution” intended to silence government critics.
"The prosecutors are sending a troubling signal that expressing dissent is a criminal offense. Their sentence demand further validates the state crackdown on critics, which civil society groups have long warned against,” Usman said.
Thousands of students, workers and civil society members took to the streets in late August in Jakarta to protest widening economic inequality and lavish perks for lawmakers, a demonstration that quickly escalated into nationwide unrest after an online motorcycle transportation driver was run over and killed by a police tactical vehicle attempting to disperse crowds.
An independent investigation into the deadly unrest found that at least 13 people died and 6,000 people arrested during the unrest, with 703 still facing legal proceedings and 13 activists accused of acting as agents provocateurs, as of February.
The report of the investigation published by rights groups Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (Kontras), the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) and Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta) described the state response as the most extensive crackdown since the fall of the authoritarian New Order regime in 1998.
Iqbal Ramadhan, member of the legal team representing the four defendants, said prosecutors had failed to present convincing evidence that the social media posts published by the defendants had directly linked to the unrest.
“The prosecutors appear to pin the blame for the August unrest solely on the four defendants without credible evidence," he told the Post on Sunday.
“We believe the prosecutors are not only targeting the four defendants, but also attacking freedom of expression and aiming to silence the critical voices of the younger generation.” - The Jakarta Post/ANN
