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A Tangerang mother of three handed a suspended six-month jail term for a controversial criminal libel conviction, has accused judges of violating the code of ethics. Prita Mulyasari, 34, who was found guilty and sentenced by the Supreme Court has reported the judges who handled her case to the Judicial Commission.

Slamet Yuwono, Prita’s attorney, said they hoped the Commission would question the judges and ask them to clarify the ruling that threatens Prita with jail should she reoffend.

The judges in question were M. Zaharuddin Utama, Salman Luthan and R. Imam Harjadi Slamet, who found the Supreme Court’s latest ruling was in contradiction to its acquittal of Prita’s civil libel case. He said its ruling of the civil case clearly stated she had not defamed Omni by her emails. Yet in stark contrast its ruling in the criminal case stated otherwise.

“As a respectable institution that many people perceive to be the last legal resort, the Supreme Court should not make this kind of conflicting ruling,” Slamet said. He added there were too many “oddities” in the case that indicated the judges had not been fair.

He said Prita wanted the judges to be questioned and if found guilty of violating the code of ethics should be sanctioned. However in a statement about the appeal the Supreme Court stated, “Prita’s case is a high profile one that has been under the spotlight for some time, and the judges are still able to make voice their opposition.”

A spokesman for the Judicial Commission, Asep Rahmat Fajar, said Prita’s report was to be discussed by a panel before any action was taken.

"The panel will verify the report and decide whether or not the report should be processed," he said. He said it was too early to see if the accused judges have actually committed an ethical code violation. Prita’s roller-coaster legal battle first started in mid-2008 when the Tangerang Omni International Hospital accused her of libel after she sent e-mails criticizing the hospital’s service provision to 20 of her friends.

Though the emails were meant to be private, Omni sued Prita in a civil case at the Tangerang District Court and won Rp 312 million ($37 thousand).

Prita appealed to the Banten High Court, which reduced the damages to $204 million before appealing to the Supreme Court, which quashed the conviction all together. In early 2009, she was also tried in a criminal libel case and detained by the prosecutors for three weeks. Prita was released after much public outcry and the support of many prominent figures including former President Megawati Sukarnoputri who visited her in jail.

The Tangerang District Court threw out the prosecutors’ preliminary arguments and acquitted her of the criminal libel. However prosecutors challenged the preliminary ruling and the High Court ordered a re-trial in which Prita was also acquitted. Once again Prosecutors appealed the ruling and the Supreme Court upheld the appeal last month.