Central Jakarta District Court to Read Out Verdict in Delpedro and Others Incitement Case Today
On Friday, the Central Jakarta District Court scheduled a verdict-reading hearing in the alleged incitement case against defendant Delpedro Marhaen, Director of Lokataru Foundation, and colleagues, for today, Friday (6 March).
“The verdict will be read on Friday,” said presiding judge Harika Nova Yeri at the Central Jakarta District Court during the hearing on Wednesday (4/3).
Apart from Delpedro, the fate of three other defendants in the incitement case linked to the protests that ended in clashes in August last year will also be decided by the panel of judges.
The defendants are admin @gejayanmemanggil Syahdan Husein, Lokataru Foundation staff Muzaffar Salim, and Khariq Anhar, a student at Universitas Riau.
“The session will reopen after Friday prayers, at two o’clock,” the judge said.
Previously, the State Prosecutor at the Jakarta Pusat District Attorney’s Office had urged the panel of judges to sentence Delpedro, Syahdan, Muzaffar, and Khariq to two years in prison.
The prosecutor said the defendants were proven to have incited electronically in connection with the demonstrations from 25-30 August 2025 that culminated in clashes, resulting in damage to public facilities and injuries to security personnel as alleged in the third indictment.
(The prosecutor stated that they should impose a two-year prison term on Defendant I Delpedro Marhaen, Defendant II Muzaffar Salim, Defendant III Syahdan Husein, and Defendant IV Khariq Anhar, with the sentence reduced by time the defendants have spent in detention.)
The prosecutor noted that the defendants recognised Instagram as a platform or effective tool for disseminating information to the public.
Through Instagram accounts managed by them, they are said to have created at least 19 collaborative pieces during the demonstrative period at the end of August last year.
The prosecutor regards these contents as inciting because they contained provocative and confrontational narratives.
The contents also carried consistent hashtags such as #IndonesiaGelap, #IndonesiaSoldOut, and #ReformasiPolri.
The prosecutor added that Instagram’s algorithms mean the defendants’ content could potentially reach a broad audience.
The Instagram accounts operated by the defendants and cited by the prosecutor are Blok Politik Pelajar, Lokataru Foundation, Gejayan Memanggil, and Aliansi Mahasiswa Menggugat.
The prosecutor said that posting content on Instagram has invited, sparked or caused people to take to the streets in protests that led to the unrest.
The viral contents rapidly contributed to the unrest in a short time before the content was deleted, the prosecutor added in her legal consideration.
The defendants were brought to trial on charges of violating Article 28(3) in conjunction with Article 45A of the Information and Electronic Transactions Law (UU ITE) in conjunction with Article 55(1) paragraph 1 KUHP, or the third indictment under Article 160 KUHP in conjunction with Article 55(1) paragraph 1.
They were also charged with violations of Article 76H in conjunction with Article 15 in conjunction with Article 87 of Law Number 35 of 2014 on Child Protection, in conjunction with Article 55(1) paragraph 1 KUHP.
The defendants were also charged by the prosecutor with violations of Article 28(2) in conjunction with Article 45A(2) UU ITE in conjunction with Article 55(1) paragraph 1 KUHP. However, the first indictment was dismissed by the panel for not meeting formal and material requirements of the indictment.