Amsal Sitepu Breaks Down in Tears at DPR: I Was Just Trying to Survive, Why Am I in Prison?
Amsal Sitepu, the defendant in the alleged corruption case concerning the production of village profile videos in Karo Regency, North Sumatra, broke down in tears while recounting the criminalisation he faced. He claimed he was only working to survive during the pandemic era but was still imprisoned by law enforcement.
He shared this story during a public hearing (RDPU) with Commission III of the House of Representatives at Nusantara II, DPR RI, Jakarta, on Monday (30/3/2026). He initially explained the process of submitting proposals for producing village profile videos in Karo Regency villages.
He stated that everything was submitted according to procedure through proposals directly to the village heads. He mentioned that all details regarding the video project were elaborated in detail in the proposals, including all the required costs.
However, he said that in 2025, he was suddenly summoned as a witness in a case. After becoming a witness, he was immediately designated as a suspect on 19 November 2025.
“In 2025, I was suddenly called to be a witness, initially as a witness, regarding this village profile video production project, and on 19 November 2025, when I was a witness, I was designated as a suspect because the investigator at that time, the Karo Regency Inspectorate, stated there was state loss from the work I did,” Amsal said during the hearing.
He expressed bewilderment as he had never been examined regarding the state loss case. Moreover, based on trial facts, the village heads who used his services found no issues with the project he proposed at the time.
“In fact, I was never examined even once, never examined even once by the Inspectorate regarding this work, and the trial facts also prove that, even the village heads stated they were examined one year after the work was completed, they were examined by the Inspectorate but the Inspectorate stated no problems were found,” he said.
He admitted confusion over the case he faced. He was accused of marking up the project.
“Until now, I am very confused about this situation, and after those trials, I found that in the audit report, it was found that there was a mark-up because some items were set to zero by the auditor and agreed upon by the public prosecutor in the indictment letter,” he stated.
He explained that services for ideas, editing, and dubbing were valued at Rp 0 by the auditor. “There are ideas, the idea in the proposal is Rp 2 million, editing Rp 1 million, cutting Rp 1 million, dubbing Rp 1 million, clip on or microphone Rp 900 thousand, which totals Rp 5.9 million, all this was considered Rp 0 by the auditor or the public prosecutor,” he added.
He broke down in tears while emphasising that he was only seeking justice. He also admitted he was just surviving from the village profile video production projects in Karo Regency.
“Today I am only seeking justice, I am just a creative economy worker, what I fear is if this happens, we young creative economy workers in Indonesia will be afraid to work with the government,” he said while sobbing.
“I am trying to seek justice, sir, I am just an ordinary creative economy worker, I have no authority over the budget, simply put, I was just selling, if the price was too expensive, why wasn’t it rejected? Or if it wasn’t appropriate, why was it paid? There was no need to imprison me for this work I did in 2020, and this was during the pandemic just to survive and to promote Karo Regency,” he added.