AGO Lays Down the Law Vs. Prita Prosecutor, Again

Attorney General Hendarman Supandji has slapped another sanction on the Tangerang prosecutor who charged Prita Mulyasari under the controversial Electronic Information and Transaction Law in a defamation case filed by Omni International Hospital.

“I forget the exact sanction, but it’s either a delay in promotion or a postponement of [Dondy K Soedirman’s] regular salary increase,” Hamzah Tadja, deputy attorney general for supervision, said here on Sunday, adding that Hendarman issued the additional penalty last week. Hamzah did not offer detailed as to why Dondy was disciplined.

It was the third time Dondy has been sanctioned. Hendarman had previously removed him head of the Tangerang Prosecutors Office following the charging of Prita under the law, also known as the ITE. The AGO has denied the demotion was connected to the defamation case.

Prita, a mother of two, is currently standing trial at the Tangerang District Court for sending an e-mail detailing alleged poor treatment she received at Omni. The charges were thrown out in June, but a court ordered that she be retried. Efforts to settle the case out of court have hit a snag as both parties cannot agree to a resolution.

Police investigators had originally sought to charge Prita under articles 310 and 311 of the Criminal Code on defamation, which carries a maximum sentence of one year in jail, but prosecutors instead indicted her under the ITE, which carries a maximum of six years.

Prita was detained for almost three weeks but was released after free-speech activists, politicians and the public rallied around her.

Dondy, as head of the prosecutors’ office when police submitted Prita’s dossier for trial, is presumed to have endorsed her indictment. Two other state prosecutors were also sanctioned amid the case.


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