Muhammad Asrul worked for the online news outlet Berita.News. In May 2019, he published articles on Farid Kasim Judas, the son of the mayor of Palopo (South Sulawesi), and local officials and their involvement in corruption in connection with a hydro-electric dam, an industrial zone and a bypass. He was arrested on 29 January 2020, did not have access to a lawyer, and was imprisoned for 36 days before the Indonesian Press Council achieved his release. In March 2021 he was indicted by the Palopo District Attorney’s Office. The prosecution argued that Muhammad Asrul’s articles defamed Farid Kasim Judas. Besides, it argued the police did not investigate the alleged corruption because Muhammad Asrul had spread false information. The Press Council criticized the ruling because Law No. 40 of 1999 on the Press and the Memorandum of Understanding between the Press Council and the police were largely ignored, obviously because Judas initially had reported the wrong name of the news outlet to the Press Council.
The defense of Muhammad Asrul pointed out many flaws in the prosecution and the trial. It was falsely stated that he was not a journalist. Moreover, he never intended to defame Judas, but exactly this is demanded by Article 27(3) of the ITE law. In the end, Muhammad Asrul was convicted under this Article. Interestingly, some of the charges did not lead to convictions, especially not the ones referring to the spread of false information, that is Article 14 (1) of Law No. 1 of 1946 and Articles 28(2) and 45(A)(2) of the ITE law. Eventually, he was sentenced to three months in prison.
During the court proceedings he had to travel frequently from Makassar to Palopo. This was extremely time-consuming, nerve-racking and expensive. After all, the trial had a major impact on his professional career and his private life because he had to face the threat of prison sentence for a long time.
To many Indonesian civil society activists it was a prototypical case of arbitrary arrest and detention, of the misuse of vague laws on defamation and false information, and of a violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). In February 2022 and in January 2023, respectively, the Makassar High Court and the Supreme Court upheld the ruling of the Palopo District Court.
American Bar Association (2023), CLOONEY FOUNDATION FOR JUSTICE’S TRIALWATCH INITIATIVE, Trial Observation Report: Indonesia v. Muhammad Asrul; Indonesia v. Stella Monica, https://www.americanbar.org/groups/human_rights/reports/trial-observation-report-indonesia-vs-asrul-and-monica/
Reporters without Borders, 8.12.2021, Jail sentence for Indonesian reporter who covered corruption, https://rsf.org/en/jail-sentence-indonesian-reporter-who-covered-corruption
Yogi Bratajaya and Daron Tan, 27.11.2023, Indonesia: Criminalization of disinformation threatens freedom of expression, https://www.thejakartapost.com/opinion/2023/11/27/criminalization-of-disinformation-threatens-freedom-of-expression.html
