Andrie Yunus' Legal Team Will Not Attend the First Hearing in the Acid Attack Case
The legal team refuses the transfer of the acid splashing case against KontraS activist Andrie Yunus to the Military Court. Andrie Yunus’ legal representatives state they will not attend the first hearing scheduled for 29 April.
“We respond to the date of 29 (April) for the first hearing; our side will not attend. We fully reject how the process is proceeding under the law at the Military Court II-08 Jakarta,” said Andrie Yunus’ legal team and KontraS Coordinator, Dimas Bagus Arya, at the State Secretariat building in Central Jakarta, on Friday (17/4/2026).
Dimas emphasised that they still have strong arguments that the acid splashing case against Andrie Yunus is not a military criminal offence. Therefore, he believes the case cannot simply be brought into the military court jurisdiction.
He then expressed concerns if this case is handled in a military court. First, regarding the alleged intellectual actors behind the incident, they will not be uncovered.
“And second, the motive is highly susceptible to being twisted or having discourse manipulation there,” he said.
Dimas alluded to the TNI’s statement claiming the motive for the attack was based on personal grudge. This, he said, reminds of the 2017 acid splashing case against Novel Baswedan, where the perpetrators also gave a similar reason.
“If we look at the statement from the TNI side yesterday, which stated that the motive was personal grudge, this reminds us of Bang Novel’s case in 2017, where the perpetrators at that time also stated that the reason or motive for the attack was personal grudge as well,” he said.
He is worried that the personal grudge narrative will be used to limit the perpetrators to only the four people who have been revealed so far. However, based on findings by the Advocacy Team for Democracy (TAUD), there are at least 16 people suspected of being involved, from surveillance, stalking, to coordination leading up to the splashing action.
“What about the processes for the people we have identified? Will that also be made a fact of the trial in the military court? I think not,” he said.
They believe this case is a general criminal offence, so it should be processed through the general court jurisdiction. On that basis, they have decided not to attend the entire series of trial processes in the military court run by the TNI.
“And of course, that is the background for us not wanting to attend the processes in the military court run by the TNI side,” said Dimas.