Central Jakarta District Court has sentenced a Muslim activist to five months in jail for insulting President Megawati Sukarnoputri during an anti-government protest.
Iqbal Siregar (36), a member of the Islamic Youth Movement (Gerakan Pemuda Islam, GPI) was arrested after participating in a January 15 demonstration against fuel price increases.
He had been holding a portrait of Megawati defaced by black tape and allegedly allowed the picture to be run over by a car and a motorbike outside the presidential palace.
Siregar has been detained in a cell at Jakarta Police headquarters since January 23 and should therefore be due for release on June 23. His sentence handed down on Monday was lighter than the 10-month jail term sought by prosecutors.
Repression of anti-government activists and pro-democracy groups was common during the 32-year regime of former president Suharto. Following his ouster amid mass riots and protests in May 1998, Indonesians were able to enjoy newfound freedom of expression, but there are now concerns that Megawati is becoming increasingly intolerant of criticism.
Eight activists have now been jailed for insulting the president since Megawati took power in July 2001. Several others are awating trial for the same offense.
Under laws inherited from the Dutch colonial era, it is a crime to insult the president, vice president or the government. Article 154 of the Criminal Code states "the public expression of feelings of hostility, hatred or contempt toward the government" is punishable by up to seven years in jail.
Article 134 punishes "insulting the president" with a maximum sentence of six years in jail, while Article 137 allows for a jail sentence of up to one year and four months for anyone who "disseminates, demonstrates openly or puts up a writing or portrait containing an insult against the president or vice president".
The South Jakarta District Court on May 7 sentenced a university student to five months in jail for burning a portrait of Megawati during a pro-democracy rally. Sleman District Court in Central Java on April 28 sentenced two students to three years in prison for torching photos of Megawati and Vice President Hamzah Haz.
Another student was in January sentenced to six months in jail for insulting the president. Last October two protesting students were given one-year jail terms for stomping on pictures of Megawati. Later a 20-year-old pro-democracy activist in Aceh province was sentenced to six months in jail for defacing portraits of Megawati and Haz.
Critics say Megawati is behaving like a dictator afraid of criticism. Human rights activists are disgusted that students can be jailed for defacing, stomping on or burning a picture, while at the same time senior officials implicated in corruption scandals – or even convicted of corruption – remain completely free.
Megawati has strongly opposed efforts to oust parliament speaker Akbar Tanjung after he was convicted of corruption last year and sentenced to jail. Tanjung was in September 2002 sentenced to three years' imprisonment for embezzling Rp40 billion in state funds. He remains free pending appeal and is at liberty to travel abroad. Only minor efforts have been made to dismiss his from his positions as speaker of the House of Representatives and chairman of the former ruling Golkar Party.
Megawati has also been criticized for refusing to fire Attorney General M.A. Rachman, despite strong corruption allegations against him.
In addition to Tanjung, three former central bank directors convicted of corruption and sentenced to jail remain free pending their appeals. Military and police officers convicted of human rights abuses also remain free pending lengthy appeal processes.