Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – A team of lawyers representing Presidential Chief of Staff (KSP) office head Teten Masduki, reported university lecturer and Muslim preacher Alfian Tanjung to the National Police over alleged defamation on Friday.
Alfian, a lecturer at the Hamka Muhammadiyah University, was reported to the police for alleging that Teten was a member of the now defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) who often conducted PKI related meetings at his office in the Presidential Palace compound at nights.
"It is a serious allegation because it doesn't affect Pak Teten as a person but also the KSP that he chairs," Ifdhal Kasim, one of Teten's lawyers, said after submitting the complaint to the National Police's Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim) headquarters in Central Jakarta.
"This is an effort to delegitimize the KSP, which has a strategic role to help manage the government to become more democratic," the former chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) added.
The team of six lawyers eventually filed the report to the police after receiving no response from Alfian following Teten's demand that he deliver a formal apology and remove the internet content that contained the allegation.
Besides Ifdhal, the team also includes prominent human rights lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis, who was not seen among his colleagues on Friday as he was out of the country. Ifdhal said his team would go to the Bareskrim headquarters again later next week to complete the paperwork before the legal process began. (jun)