Jokowi Setuju Beri Amnesti ke Dosen Unsyiah
Indonesia President Backs Amnesty for Professor Jailed for WhatsApp Message
Editor : Ismail Gani
Translator : Novita Cahyadi
Presiden RI Joko Widodo telah menyetujui pemberian amnesti kepada dosen Universitas Syiah Kuala, Banda Aceh, Saiful Mahdi yang dipenjara karena pencemaran nama baik di bawah Undang-Undang Informasi dan Transaksi Elektronik [UU ITE].
Hal itu disampaikan Menteri Koordinator Politik, Hukum dan HAM [Menkopolhukam] Mahfud MD setelah Presiden Jokowi memberikan surat kepada DPR dan tinggal menunggu umpan balik dari DPR sebelum memberikan grasi.
Saiful Mahdi selaku dosen Universitas Syiah Kuala telah dipenjara selama tiga bulan karena komentar yang dibuat dalam obrolan grup WhatsApp sesama akademisi, yang mengkritik proses perekrutan dosen.
Kasus Saiful memicu keluhan atas kemudahan di mana orang dapat dituntut di Indonesia untuk komentar yang dibuat di platform perpesanan, termasuk komentar tentang orang yang bahkan tidak diidentifikasi.
Pengacara Saiful, Syahrul mengatakan kepada Reuters bahwa kliennya menghargai amnesti karena dapat menjadikan pengalamannya berdampak buruk pada kebebasan akademik dan berbicara.
Dia juga mengatakan 38 sarjana di Australia telah menulis surat kepada Presiden Jokowi, meminta pengampunan Saiful.
Istri Saiful, Dian Rubianty, menangis selama seminar online dan mengatakan kasusnya "telah mencuri tidur dari saya dan anak-anak".
Sebagai informasi, UU ITE yang disahkan tahun 2008, dirancang untuk mengatur aktivitas online, termasuk pencemaran nama baik dan ujaran kebencian, seperti dikutip Reuters yang dilansir MailOnline.
"Antara 2016 dan 2020, ada 786 kasus yang melibatkan hukum dengan 88% dari mereka berakhir di balik jeruji besi," kata anggota kelompok Jaringan Kebebasan Berekspresi Asia Tenggara [SAFEnet], Damar Juniarto.
INDONESIAN President Joko Widodo has agreed to pardon an academic jailed last month for defamation under a controversial internet law, a minister said, following an outcry from human rights groups who say the law risks curtailing free speech.
Saiful Mahdi, a lecturer from Aceh province, was imprisoned for three months over comments made in a WhatsApp messenger group chat among fellow academics, which criticised a hiring process for lecturers.
Saiful's case prompted complaints over the ease at which people can be prosecuted in Indonesia for comments made on messaging platforms, including remarks about people not even identified.
Amnesty International https://www.amnesty.id/release-lecturer-jailed-for-three-months-over-a-whatsapp-message has called the law was "deeply flawed".
Indonesia's chief security minister Mahfud MD on Tuesday said Jokowi, as the president is known, had approved amnesty for Saiful and would await feedback from parliament before granting a pardon.
Asked why Jokowi favoured amnesty in Saiful's case, a presidential spokesman referred Reuters to the security minister.
A presidential amnesty was given in 2019 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-indonesia-rights-idUSKCN1UK0JJ to a woman jailed under the same law for recording lewd phone calls from her boss.
The 2008 electronic information and transactions (ITE) law was designed to regulate online activity, including defamation and hate speech.
Between 2016 and 2020, there were 786 cases involving the law, with 88% of the those charged ending up behind bars, according to Damar Juniarto of digital advocacy group, the Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SAFEnet).
Jokowi has said he wants to revise the law this year.
The government has formed a task force to oversee that and provide guidelines https://www.reuters.com/article/us-indonesia-internet-idUSKBN2AN0UQ for law enforcers to apply the law more judiciously.
Syahrul, Saiful's lawyer, told Reuters his client appreciated the amnesty, without which his experiences could "adversely impact academic and speech freedom."
He said 38 scholars in Australia wrote to the president, requesting Saiful's pardon.
Saiful's wife, Dian Rubianty, was in tears during an online seminar and said his case "has stolen sleep away from me and my children". (Reporting by Stanley Widianto; Editing by Martin Petty)