FH Unmul Petition: Reject Military Court in Activist Andrie Yunus Case

Student organisations and institutions at the Faculty of Law, Mulawarman University (Unmul), reject the handling of the acid attack case on KontraS activist Andrie Yunus in a military court. This is feared to merely add to the long list of impunity for soldiers committing unlawful acts.

The organisations include the Executive Board of Students (BEM) of the Faculty of Law (FH), the Student Representative Council of FH, the Institute for Scientific Studies and Legal Research of FH, the Al-Mizan Faculty Da’wah Institute, the Asian Law Studies Association Local Chapter Unmul, and the Christian Student Fellowship of FH Unmul.

“We state that justice must be upheld immediately; justice is non-negotiable. Reveal the intellectual masterminds and actors who planned and were involved in this acid attack case. The acid attack case against Andrie Yunus must be tried through the general court mechanism,” the petition states, as quoted on Monday (6/4).

They view the acid attack on Andrie as having the intent and purpose to cripple him physically and psychologically. According to them, this heinous incident is a form of silencing and terrorising all activist actions.

They suspect the acid attack on Andrie was not a “coincidental and spontaneous” act, and consider it to have been carried out with careful and structured planning.

“The act of violence in the form of an acid attack on Andrie Yunus cannot at all be considered merely as ordinary violence and intimidation focused on one thing,” they stated.

Potential for a miscarriage of justice

Lecturer from the Constitutional Law Department at the Faculty of Law, Mulawarman University, Herdiansyah Hamzah, explained at least five reasons why the trial would be misguided if Andrie’s case is brought to the military court realm.

First, it is closed and not transparent. Herdiansyah has long criticised military courts for being closed and lacking transparency.

Although military courts fall under the Supreme Court (MA), he said, the process is difficult for the public and even victims to access, thus increasing demands for active TNI members to be “obliged” to be tried in general courts.

Second, it jeopardises civilian sovereignty and democratisation. In democratic practices anywhere in the world, the military must submit to civilian sovereignty. Herdiansyah reminds that the formula that always applies is that the military is never compatible with democracy.

“This must also apply in the judicial system. Crimes in civilian spaces should be tried in general courts, not military courts,” he said.

The next reason is wrong jurisdiction. Herdiansyah said crimes in civilian spaces, especially those with broad impacts on the future of freedom and democracy, cannot be resolved in the military court chamber.

The fourth reason is “orange eating orange.” Herdiansyah believes the process in military courts will not be objective. Like orange eating orange, he said, the military is impossible to judge the military, as there is a thick element of subjectivity in the process.

Finally, it is to save the perpetrators. He sees a kind of corps spirit mindset aimed at saving fellow corps members.

He opines that what will ultimately happen is an effort to internalise the case, namely trying as hard as possible to resolve cases involving members internally through the military court scheme.

“These five reasons are more than enough to call the military court in the acid terror case targeted at Andrie Yunus a wrong path, alias misguided,” Herdiansyah stated.

Andrie Yunus was doused with acid about three weeks ago after giving a talk at the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) office in a podcast titled “Remilitarisation & Judicial Review of the TNI Law”.

The police once announced the initials of two suspects, but at the same time, the TNI also stated that they had detained four people from TNI BAIS as the field perpetrators of the acid attack on Andrie. They are NDP, SL, BHW, and ES.

Meanwhile, the Advocacy Team for Democracy (TAUD), consisting of several civil society organisations, stated that the field perpetrators of the acid attack on Andrie involved at least 16 people. TAUD called this an intelligence operation.

Without a clear legal basis or reason, the police stated that they had handed over the case handling to the TNI Military Police Centre (POM).