Jakarta – The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) has criticised a plan by the Environment and Forestry Ministry (KLHK) to pardon hundreds of companies operating illegally in forest areas based on Law Number 11/2020 on Job Creation.

High-profile lawyer Bernard Collaery says he can finally move forward with his life after Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus ordered longstanding leaking charges against him to be dropped.

Mr Collaery had been facing charges for four years after he was accused of leaking classified information about an alleged Australian spying operation in East Timor.

Yassar Aulia and Sayyidatiihayaa Afra – Pressured to solve the ongoing cooking oil crisis in Indonesia, President Joko Widodo reshuffled his cabinet and appointed Zulkifli Hasan to replace the previous Minister of Trade, Muhammad Lutfi.

Bernard Keane – The prosecution of Bernard Collaery for his role in the exposure of the Howard government's bugging of the Timor-Leste cabinet in 2004 is over. This afternoon, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus announced that he had no-billed the prosecution, under section 71 of the Judiciary Act.

Medan – A Kamisan (Thursday) action held by a civil society group in the North Sumatra provincial capital of Medan was forcibly broken up by plan clothed police officers on Thursday July 7.

Jayapura, Jubi – Head of the United for Truth (BUK), an organization for victims of human rights violations, Tineke Rumkabu said victims of the Bloody Biak tragedy demanded President Joko Widodo fulfill his political commitment to resolve various cases of human rights violations in Papua.

Jakarta – The National Police's Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim) has issued a statement that the East Java Police had "no trouble" with handling a sexual abuse case that involved the son of a prominent kyai (Islamic teacher) in Jombang regency.

Michelle Grattan – The Albanese government has acted quickly to abandon the prosecution of Bernard Collaery, who was charged in relation to the leaking of information about Australia's alleged spying in Timor-Leste.

Lisa Visentin – Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has ordered the Commonwealth to drop the prosecution of lawyer Bernard Collaery, four years after he was charged with leaking classified information about Australia's alleged spying operation in East Timor.

Dewi Nurita, Jakarta – The final draft of the Criminal Code Bill or RKUHP contains regulations about abortion mentioned in Article 467, which subjects women who commit abortion to 4 years behind bars. However, it exempts victims of rape.

Christopher Knaus and Paul Karp – Timor-Leste's president, Jose Ramos-Horta, has welcomed the "wisdom and fairness" of the decision to end the prosecution of Bernard Collaery, saying the lawyer is a "good man" who represented the best of Australian ideals.

Len Garae – The global leader and President of the United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP), Benny Wenda, touched down in Vanuatu at 1.30pm on Monday this week after a long flight from London, Dubai, and Sydney to Port Vila.

Dewi Nurita, Jakarta – The death penalty or capital punishment continues to be mentioned in the latest draft of the Criminal Code Bill (RKUHP) that was handed over by the government to the House of Representatives (DPR) on Wednesday. The death penalty under the RKUHP is mentioned in Articles 67, 98, 99, 100, 101, and 102.

M Faiz Zaki, Jakarta – The Journalist Safety Commission (KKJ) in a statement on Wednesday expects the new Criminal Code Draft Law (RKUHP) that is set to be passed by the House and the government will not sacrifice press freedom, which the commission argues will significantly affect the work of journalism.

Christopher Knaus – On the last day of summer, 2013, lawyer Bernard Collaery sat down to pen a missive to a client known only as Witness K. The client, a veteran of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, had spent years stewing over his involvement in an Australian mission to bug the offices of Timor-Leste during 2004 negotiations to carve up crucial oil and gas resources.

Jayapura, Jubi – The Papua Police sent a platoon of troops from the Dogiyai Police to Paniai Regency to anticipate further riots following the death of a tribal chief, who was shot during the vandalism at the Paniai Regent's Office on Tuesday, July 5, 2022.

Katharina R. Lestari, Jakarta – A priest and a nun were part of a three-member team that met Indonesian parliamentarians urging them to include human trafficking issues in the Muslim-majority nation's school curriculum.

Yustinus Paat, Heru Andriyanto, Jakarta – Defamation against the president and the vice president is a crime punishable by up to four and a half years in prison, according to the Criminal Code bill submitted by the government to the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

M Julnis Firmansyah, Jakarta – The spokesperson of Papua Police Sr. Comr. Ahmad Musthofa Kamal rebutted the claims made by the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement (OPM), that they killed an undercover intelligence officer. According to Kamal, they killed a civilian.

Clara Ferreira Marques, Singapore – Indonesian President Joko Widodo visited Kyiv and Moscow last week, offering to be a diplomatic bridge between the two. The first Asian leader to make the trip to both capitals since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, he made a few headlines, but no real progress.

Antara, Riani Sanusi Putri, Jakarta – A representative for the Ministry of Agriculture on Wednesday said the government deemed the foot and mouth disease (FMD) has spread across 21 provinces in Indonesia and affects over 300,000 cattle in 232 regencies and cities.

Jayapura, Jubi – Interfaith leaders in Papua gathered to discuss the "Challenges and the Role of Religions in the Struggle to Build Peace in Papua" in Jayapura City on Tuesday, July 5, 2022. The meeting was initiated by the Secretariat for Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation (SKPKC) Franciscan Papua.

Jakarta – The Law and Human Rights Ministry submitted on Wednesday the government's final draft revision of the Criminal Code after making what it called an improvement to the proposed regulation.

The proposal was conveyed earlier by the ITE Law Victims Association (PAKU ITE) and the Serious

Anwar Siswadi (Contributor), Jakarta – Research firm Populix has released its latest survey on consumers' preference for banking and e-wallet apps which found that 64 respondents own banking and financial services apps on their mobile devices.

Police have charged four people for the alleged rape of 11 female students at an Islamic school in Depok, West Java. The suspects were listed as three ustaz (Islamic studies teachers) and one senior at the school.

Antara, Jakarta – As transportation accounts for 47 percent of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions recorded in the province, the government has decided to impose several vehicle restrictions, Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan has informed.

Herman, Jakarta – The government has launched a new cooking oil product with subsidized prices and offered incentives for producers who agree to join the program, Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan said on Wednesday.

Called Minyakita, the new product will be sold in simple packaging at only Rp 14,000 ($1) a liter.

Febriyan, Jakarta – The West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) representative Sebby Sambom in a written statement Tempo received on Tuesday claims to have executed a member of the Indonesian intelligence who he claims had gone undercover as a gold miner at Papua's Korowai District.

Jayapura, Jubi – Executive Director of the Alliance for Democracy for Papua (AIDP) Latifah Anum Siregar said the illegal firearms and ammunition trade network in Papua was very strong. Many cases of illegal arms trade have been decided by the courts but the major suppliers and financiers in the illegal trade have not been touched by the legal process.

Jayapura, Jubi TV – The Yalimo Police arrested AM, a Nduga-based civil servant, on Wednesday night, June 29, 2022, in Elelim, Yalimo Regency. The police caught AM possessing with him 615 rounds of ammunition of various calibers and one self-assembled firearm suspected to be supplied to the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) under the leadership of Egianus Kogoya.

Riani Sanusi Putri, Jakarta – The Indonesian Palm Oil Association (Apkasindo) chairperson Gulat Manurung on Monday responded to an issue that had gone viral on the internet where Indonesian palm oil farmers sold their palm fresh fruit bunches (FFB) across the border to Malaysia as prices in Indonesia had drastically fallen.

Budi Satriawan, Yogyakarta – Concerned about how Indonesian students with hearing impairments often miss out on religious education, cleric Abdul Kahfi founded an Islamic boarding school to help them study and recite scripture from the Quran using sign language.

Irfan Kamil, Jakarta – The government has asked the Constitutional Court (MK) to reject a judicial review of law Number 1/1974 on Marriage. The law is being challenged by a person named E Ramos Petege – who is a Catholic – because he is unable to marry his beloved who is a Muslim.

Ardito Ramadhan, Jakarta – University of Indonesia Student Executive Council (BEM UI) Chairperson Bayu Satria Utomo believes that the stipulations under Article 273 in the revised Draft Criminal Code (RKUHP) could criminalise protest actions.

Raimundos Oki, chief editor of news portal Oekusipost.com, has been accused of breaching judicial secrecy following an investigative report concerning the detention and forced virginity testing of 30 underage girls in 2020. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemns the charges and calls on the Timor-Leste government to immediately rescind the case.

Jakarta – A decision announced last month by Japanese financiers to pull the plug on a coal-fired power plant to be built in West Java turned out, quite surprisingly, to have been initiated on the Indonesian side.

Jayanty Nada Shofa, Jakarta – The UK recently announced that it would provide #9 million or about $10.8 million in grants to help propel Indonesia's shift towards low-carbon transport as the Southeast Asian country undergoes robust urbanization.

The UK's #9 million grant is part of the newly launched Future Cities: UK-Indonesia Low Carbon Partnership.

Police in Jombang, East Java are facing pressure from a revered Islamic figure to drop their pursuit of his fugitive son, who is wanted on suspicion of molesting a minor.

The 6th July marks 24 years since the Biak Massacre when the Indonesian security forces massacred scores of people in Biak, West Papua. The victims, included women and children who had gathered for a peaceful rally. They were killed at the base of a water tower flying the Morning Star flag

Stefani Wijaya, Fana Suparman, Jakarta – The anti-money laundering agency and even the counter-terrorism squad Detachment 88 have said they are investigating Muslim charity organization Aksi Cepat Tanggap (ACT) following reports of alleged misappropriations by its executives.

Police in Timor-Leste have charged a journalist for allegedly violating judicial secrecy by publishing reports that question the virginity tests of some underage girls, who were sexually abused by a convicted former priest.

Dewi Nurita, Jakarta – Indonesia continued to record new cases of COVID-19. Based on the government data on Monday, July 4, at 12 p.m., 1,434 new infections were detected over the past 24 hours.

The country's total tally has thus far reached 6,095,351 since the first case was announced on March 2, 2020.

Jayapura, Jubi – Former Papuan political prisoner Filep Karma assessed the regulation of Papua's Special Autonomy (Otsus) through Law No. 2/2021 on the Second Amendment to Law Number 21/2001 had removed the essence of "special autonomy". Instead of retaining Papua's authority as a region with special autonomy, the Indonesian government has in fact recentralized its authority.

Fajar Pebrianto, Jakarta – President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo on Monday has decided to include third-dose vaccinations or booster shots as a requirement to conduct mass-public activities and public transportation rides.

Jakarta – BA.4 and BA.5 have become the dominant Covid-19 variants in Indonesia where the number of new cases picks up growth again, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said on Monday.

M Faiz Zaki, Jakarta – One of the Save Sangihe Island activists, Jull Takaliulang on Sunday said that the group will pay a visit to the Indonesian National Police (Polri) main headquarters to clarify a situation they believe is an attempt to criminalize a resident of the island that protested against the Sangihe gold mining project.

Katharina R. Lestari, Jakarta – Indonesian police have named four people, including a member of a regional legislative body, as suspects in a blasphemy case over their alleged involvement in a marriage between a Muslim man and a female goat in East Java province.

Antara, Jakarta – The Indonesian province of East Kalimantan has been warned of potential wildfires as the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has detected 33 hotspots since Saturday.

We don't have to don our masks outdoors, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said today, setting the record straight amid a lack of clarity about the policy.