Faisal Maliki Baskoro & Rangga Prokoso – Two years after Prita Mulyasari, a mother of three from Tangerang, was first detained for supposedly defaming an upscale hospital, and after three times having courts find in her favor, the Supreme Court has upheld an appeal and found her guilty.

The 34-year-old has faced a roller-coaster legal battle that started in mid-2008 when Tangerang's Omni International Hospital reported her for libel for sending e-mails critical of its service to 20 friends.

Although the e-mails were meant to be private, Omni sued Prita in a civil case at the Tangerang District Court, winning Rp 312 million ($37,000). Prita appealed the decision to the Banten High Court, which cut the damages to Rp 204 million, before appealing to the Supreme Court, which quashed it altogether.

At the same time, however, she was tried in a criminal libel case. This time, the Tangerang court threw out prosecutors' preliminary arguments and later acquitted her during the trial proper. Prosecutors appealed this ruling, and it was this appeal that the Supreme Court upheld on Friday in a ruling posted on its Web site.

"We will fight against the Supreme Court's decision," Prita's husband, Andri Nugroho, told the Jakarta Globe on Friday. "We can still request a case review by presenting new evidence. We will see this case through to the end."

He said the family was confused by the ruling because the Supreme Court had earlier backed Prita in the civil case. Prita's attorney, Slamet Yuwono, said this earlier ruling made it difficult to believe that the Supreme Court would now deliver a guilty verdict in the criminal case.

"It is bizarre that the same court would deliver conflicting rulings in the same libel case. This can serve as new evidence and we will ask for a case review, for sure, because if the announcement on the Web site is true, then Prita must serve time in jail," he said.

"The ruling also sets a bad precedent because hundreds of thousands of people could be jailed for complaining in an e-mail. But we are not sure of anything until we receive official notification from the Supreme Court, because the court's Web site is sometimes wrong."

The Web site said three judges – M. Zaharuddin Utama, Salman Luthan and R. Imam Harjadi – accepted on June 30 the appeal by prosecutors, who in November 2009 had recommended a six-month jail term for Prita. The Web site, however, did not specify a jail term and the court's spokesman, Hatta Ali, did not respond to calls for comment on Friday.

Tangerang's chief prosecutor, Chaerul Amir, meanwhile, said he was ready to imprison the mother of three as soon as official notification of the verdict was received. "We have recommended six months, but we don't know if our appeal was accepted entirely or partly," he said.

Prita was detained by prosecutors for three weeks in early 2009 and only released after a public outcry, with many prominent figures, including former President Megawati Sukarnoputri, visiting her in jail to show support. Some Rp 800 million was also raised from public donations to help fight her case.

Her trial started in June 2009 but the judges in Tangerang immediately dismissed the case on the grounds the prosecution had used the wrong law to indict her. However, prosecutors successfully challenged the preliminary ruling and the High Court ordered a retrial, in which Prita was acquitted in November 2009.