Jakarta – Human rights activist and defendant in a defamation case, Fatia Maulidiyanti, claims she never insulted Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan personally in the "Lord Luhut" case.
This was conveyed by Maulidiyanti when she read out her defense speech at the East Jakarta District Court on Monday evening, November 27, in a trial of alleged defamation brought against her by Pandjaitan.
"I never insulted Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan by targeting his private life, physically, and or his behaviour as an individual", said Maulidiyanti.
She explained that what she conveyed in a video discussion uploaded on fellow defendant Haris Azhar's YouTube channel titled "There is Lord Luhut behind the Economic Relations-Military Operations in Intan Jaya!! There are also State Intelligence Agency Generals!! NgeHAMtam", was criticism of him a public official who should indeed be transparent and accountable.
"What I conveyed and criticised was Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan as a public official, who because of his position was obliged to have to be transparent and accountable", she explained.
She denied there was any bad intent towards Pandjaitan in discussing the research on mining businesses in Papua in the YouTube video. Maulidiyanti also denied that she tried to benefit from the content.
According to Maulidiyanti, instead of gaining any benefit, she has in fact been harmed because she has had to deal with the law.
"There was absolutely no bad intent planned in the content, there was no benefit that I had my eye on from the discussion of the research in the YouTube video, for my personal interests, rather it has been a loss that I am facing today", she said.
The public prosecutor has demanded that Maulidiyanti be sentenced to three years and six months in prison along with a 500 million rupiah subsidiary fine or three additional months behind bars.
The prosecution has indicted her under Article 27 Paragraph 3 in conjunction with Article 45 Paragraph 3 of the Information and Electronic Transaction (ITE) Law in conjunction with Article 55 Paragraph 1 of the 1st Criminal Code (KUHP). (mab/tsa)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Pleidoi Fatia: Saya Tidak Pernah Menghina Luhut Sebagai Pribadi".]