JAKARTA: A brutal acid attack on a high-profile Indonesian human rights activist has raised the spectre of past attacks against activists, and put pressure on law enforcement to bring those responsible to justice.
The incident comes amid mounting reports of intimidation against activists and journalists, and has drawn significant national, and international, attention. The authorities’ response will be a matter of much public scrutiny, analysts told The Straits Times.
“I think a lot of people outside the country are watching it as a kind of a litmus test of the seriousness with which this administration will take these kinds of cases,” said Dr Ian Wilson, senior lecturer in politics and international relations at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia.
The attack on Andrie Yunus, deputy coordinator of human rights watchdog Kontras, struck a nerve, in part because almost all of it was caught on camera: CCTV footage seen by ST shows Andrie riding his motorbike in the Menteng neighbourhood in Central Jakarta on the night of March 12 when his face and upper body are sprayed with acid by a passenger on a passing motorcycle. Andrie immediately yells out in pain and is helped by passers-by.
According to a statement from Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital on Monday (March 16), the attack resulted in burns on 20 per cent of Andrie’s body, and he had to undergo an operation after damage to his right eye.
As at the time of writing, Andrie was in stable condition at the hospital’s High-Care Unit.
Mounting attacks on activists, journalists
The attack, while shocking, is not without precedent. There has been an increasing number of attacks and cases of intimidation against human rights defenders and organisations over the past three years, with the number of victims hitting 188 in 2025, an 82.5 per cent jump from 103 in 2023, data from Amnesty International Indonesia showed.
Notably, in March 2025, news outlet Tempo, known for its hard-hitting investigative reporting, received packages containing a severed pig’s head and rat carcasses.
Kontras has been at the centre of many threats since its establishment in 1998 – the most notorious being the murder of its former coordinator Munir Said Thalib while on a flight to Amsterdam in the Netherlands in 2004.
The attack on Andrie most resembles the one suffered by former Corruption Eradication Commission senior investigator Novel Baswedan.
He was walking home from dawn prayers at his local mosque on April 11, 2017, when two people on a motorcycle rode by and sprayed him with acid.
“I think Indonesia has been experiencing a decline in freedom of expression for a long time,” Dr Firman Noor, senior political researcher at the National Research and Innovation Agency, told ST.
“And in terms of the quality of our democracy, we’re also experiencing stagnation. This is further proof that our democracy is indeed experiencing a serious decline.”
Outspoken critic
Andrie first came into the national spotlight in March 2025 after footage of him interrupting members of Parliament who were deliberating a new military law at a luxury hotel in Jakarta went viral.
“We demand that the deliberations on the military law revision be halted, as they are not in accordance with proper legislative processes. They are being held behind closed doors,” he said at the time.
Andrie has since been at the forefront of the opposition to the law. Many civil society organisations believe the military law revision, which was passed around a week later, could lead to an over-expansion of the military’s role in civilian life.
On the night of the attack, Andrie was riding home after recording a podcast about remilitarisation at the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) office in Menteng.
“We know that this attack is not merely an attack on Andrie Yunus, but also an attack on civil society and the public as a whole,” Kontras activist Jane Rosalina said in a press conference at the YLBHI office on March 16.
Ongoing investigation
The attack has drawn strong reactions both at home and abroad, with the statements by politicians and party leaders unusually in sync with the demands from civil society.
The Parliament’s Commission III, which oversees legal affairs and human rights, held a press conference on March 16, calling for the attack to be thoroughly investigated.
“We strongly condemn the acid attack because it is not merely an ordinary crime but a crime against democracy,” Commission III chair Habiburokhman said at the press conference.
Prabowo administration spokesman Angga Raka Prabowo also released a statement on March 14 condemning the violence and calling on law enforcement to bring the perpetrators to justice.
All eyes are now on law enforcement, with particular scrutiny on whether the mastermind behind the attack will be uncovered.
“There hasn’t been a great track record when it comes to these cases to uncover what actually happened here, because it’s safe to assume that the perpetrators would have been doing it on behalf of someone else,” said Dr Wilson.
In the case of Novel, for example, the police arrested only two suspects more than two years after the attack. They were both active police officers who admitted they had conducted the attack because they felt Novel, a former police officer himself, had betrayed the police by investigating claims of corruption within the organisation.
The two police officers were found guilty in 2020 and sentenced to 1½ years’ jail and two years’ jail, respectively.
Coordinating Minister for Law and Human Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra has highlighted public concern, urging the police to uncover the “intellectual actors” behind the attack on Andrie, not just the perpetrators in the attack.
For its part, the Jakarta Police said on March 16 that they have found evidence that at least four people were involved in the attack. The suspects had allegedly followed Andrie for hours before the attack. As at the time of writing, the police have yet to publicly identify the suspects.
Dr Firman said the stakes in this case are particularly high because Indonesia is currently chair of the UN Human Rights Council, a position that it had lobbied hard for throughout 2025.
The attack has already drawn the attention of UN officials: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk called it a “cowardly act of violence”, while UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders Mary Lawlor described the attack as “horrific”.
Dr Firman said there is “no other choice but to resolve the case fully”, adding: “If the case just fades away or is resolved unjustly, then Indonesia’s reputation will be tarnished.” - The Straits Times/ANN
