A military court in Jakarta reduced the prison sentences and overturned the dishonorable discharge of two of the four military personnel convicted for the March 2026 acid attack against human rights activist\u00a0Andrie Yunus.\u00a0
The appellate decision, dated August 20, reduced the sentences of 2nd Sgt. Edi Sudarko and 1st Lt. Budhi Hariyanto Widhi Cahyono of the Indonesian military\u2019s Strategic Intelligence Agency (BAIS) by six months, bringing both sentences to less than three years. The appeals court upheld the shorter sentences of the other two defendants, Capt. Nandala Dwi Prasetya and 1st Lt. Sami Lakka.
On March 12, Yunus, 27, the deputy coordinator of KontraS, the nongovernmental Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence, had just finished recording a podcast interview at the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation when he was attacked with acid. He received\u00a024 percent burns to his face, chest, and hands, and\u00a0may have lost sight in his right eye. On June 10, a military court found all four soldiers guilty of planning and carrying out the attack.
Indonesia\u2019s\u00a0Judicial Commission, an independent constitutional state body that monitors and oversees the conduct of judges, alleged on July 30 that the military panel that initially tried the case had committed unspecified ethical violations. An\u00a0internal investigation into the alleged violations is ongoing.
A military court investigated and tried the four soldiers because, under Indonesian law, civilian police cannot investigate military personnel. These legal restrictions have long prevented civilian prosecutions of members of the armed forces for serious human rights violations. \u00a0
In 2010, Human Rights Watch urged the Indonesian Parliament to enact a bill that would provide civilian court jurisdiction over members of the military for all crimes committed against civilians.
Muhammad Afif Abdul Qoyim, a lawyer from the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation, said the soldiers should have been tried in civilian courts. He told Human Rights Watch that the Constitutional Court should grant the petition in a judicial review that would push \u201cmilitary courts to handle only military discipline, not ordinary crimes.\u201d
Indonesian Human Rights Minister\u00a0Natalius Pigai has criticized the appellate ruling. But the Indonesian government should go further and order an independent, civilian-led investigation into the attack on Andrie Yunus to hold everyone involved, including those who ordered the attack, accountable.
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