Coalition: PTUN Ruling on Fadli Zon's Denial of May 1998 Could Affect Public Trust

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - The Civil Society Coalition Against Impunity has stated that the ruling by the State Administrative Court (PTUN) panel of judges regarding the lawsuit over Culture Minister Fadli Zon’s denial of the mass rapes in May 1998 could affect public trust in the law in Indonesia.

“Today’s press conference is intended to accompany public knowledge and provide information to the public so that the court also understands that this decision has a significant impact on public trust in Indonesian law,” said Marzuki Darusman, Chairman of the Joint Fact-Finding Team (TGPF) for May 1998, at the Amnesty International Indonesia office in Central Jakarta on Tuesday (7/4/2026).

Therefore, he hopes that the panel of judges will share the same view as the victims of the mass violence in May 1998.

“Because public trust in law enforcement in Indonesia largely depends on rulings from the PTUN. In this case, that trust will stand if the PTUN concludes correctly. But that trust will collapse if the opposite occurs,” he said.

“So our demand is that Fadli Zon acknowledges his mistake in calling what happened in May a fantasy, imagination, or fairy tale, and second, that he publicly apologises for his error,” he added.

This lawsuit relates to Fadli’s statements, which are deemed to deny the mass rapes of May 1998 and to delegitimise the work of the Joint Fact-Finding Team (TGPF) for May 1998.

The plaintiff’s legal representative, Jane Rosalina, said that the lawsuit has been registered under case number 303/G/2025/PTUN-JKT.

“Today we have served the lawsuit to the Minister of Culture of the Republic of Indonesia, Fadli Zon, with the registered case number 303/G/2025/PTUN-JKT, which we registered directly at the PTUN Jakarta today,” Jane said during a press conference broadcast on the Kontras YouTube account on Thursday.

At that time, Fadli stated that the TGPF report only contained figures without strong evidence support and warned against “embarrassing the nation itself” when discussing the May 1998 events.

The coalition assesses that those statements not only exceed the authority of the Minister of Culture but also contradict several regulations, including Law No. 30 of 2014 on Government Administration, Law No. 39 of 1999 on Human Rights, and Law No. 26 of 2000 on Human Rights Courts.

“The Ministry of Culture itself has no connection to efforts to resolve serious human rights violation cases,” Jane said.