The Indonesian Legal Aid (YLBHI-LBH) Yogyakarta received a letter informing of the Yogyakarta Police decision to stop the investigation on Meila Nurul Fajriah, a YLBHI lawyer, on Tuesday, 6 August 2024.

Meila Nurul Fajriah was officially designated as a suspect in a defamation case when she provided legal accompaniment to 30 victims of sexal violence purportedly done by Universitas Islam Indonesia alumni by the initial of IM.

The director of YLBHI, Julian Duwi Prasetia stated that criminalisation was painful, not only for the person accompanying the victim, but also for other people who were doing advocacy work and who dedicated their time to accompany victims of sexual violence. “This was very painful for victims,” said Julian, as cited in Tempo.co, on Wednesday 7 August 2024.

He also suggested that in dealing with sexual violence, victims had to be accompanied and had to recover from the trauma coming out of the incident to make sure that the incident did not create harmful effect on victim.

“Attempt for criminalising was a way to weaken the sense of justice amongst victims of sexual violence,” said Julian. He emphasised the importance of denouncing criminalisation against the person who accompanied victims and against human rights defenders.

“The Police decision to stop the investigation was a victory for the victim of sexual violence and a freedom for victims to choose their own way of reporting and the type of proper recovery that fit with the victim’s needs, as stipulated in the Sexual Violence Law. This was confirmed by the Yogyakarta Police,“ wrote the YLHBI and LBH Yogyakarta board member during a press conference, on Tuesday 6 August 2024.

Yet, the Police’s action to stop the investigation did not eliminate the space for pre-trial lawsuit. “The fight was not over. We had to prepare for a potential pre-trial lawsuit,” he said.

With regards to the above, Julian hoped that the judges who represented the court could adopt the victim’s perspective in dealing with sexual violence during pre-trial.

Julian also said that the Sexual Violence Law may be ‘ accelerated’ by the Supreme Court and the lower courts by adopting the victim’s perspective in dealing with sexual violence.

“The judges had experiences of dealing with sexual violence cases in order to appropriately handle sexual violence and counter claim,” he said.
Julian also indicated that the community could trigger the acceleration. The community could send an amicus curiae to the Supreme Court or to the judge who took charge of the case.

“Solidarity was critical to come to a common perception amongst institutions regarding their understanding of sexual violence cases,” said Julian.
Harianjogja.com revealed that the defamation case – based on Information and Electronic Transaction Law – started in 2020 after complaint being lodged by IM. Investigation started in coordination with a linguistic expert on 7 October 2020.

The case was referred to investigation on 21 December 2021 after a criminal act was reported by IM. As time passed, the investigation and additional examination led to the decision to indict Meila on June 2024 for defemation as per Article 45 Point 3 re. Article 27 Point 3 of the Law No. 19/2015 in rerefence to Law No. 11/2017 on Information and Electronic Transaction.

In the previous week, the Law and Social Justice Study Centre of the Law Facuklty of Gadjah Mada University also revealed their legal views and recommendations regarding the handling of Melia’s legal case.

The chairperson of the Law and Social Justice Study Centre of the Law Faculty at Gadjah Mada University, Herlambang P. Wiratraman emphasised ten points of legal views.

In one point, the decision to designate a defender of a victim of sexual violence as a suspect was potentially an infringement to a person’s right to seek justice. The latter was every citizen’s right, without discrimination, to submit a complaint and a report on a criminal act in order to seek just and right decision.

On Thursday, 8 August, the National Human Rights Commission issued a press release appreciating the decision to stop the defamation investigation of huamn rights defender, Meila Nurul Fajriah, a YLBHI lawyer. The Commission also encouraged a guarantee for the protection of citizen’s rights to express their opinions, and not to use criminal approach for such cases. It also demanded protection for human rights defenders. (Ast)