Four BAIS TNI Members Face Indictment Hearing Today Over Caustic-Spray Attack on Activist Andrie Yunus

The Military Court II-08 Jakarta will hold a continuation hearing in the case of the caustic spray against KontraS activist Andrie Yunus, with the agenda of reading the indictment by the Oditur Militer II-07 Jakarta on Wednesday, 20 May 2026. In this case, four BAIS TNI members are named as defendants: Sergeant First Class Edi Sudarko, First Lieutenant Budhi Hariyanto Widhi, Captain Nandala Dwi Prasetya, and Lieutenant Sami Lakka. Previously, the Head of Oditurat Militer II-07 Jakarta, Colonel Chk Andri Wijaya Andri, explained that the prosecution is applying a layered indictment against the defendants. ‘For our primary indictment we charge subsidiarity or a layered charge: first, we apply Article 469(1) in conjunction with Article 20(C) of Law Number 1 of 2023, with a maximum sentence of 12 years in prison,’ he said. In addition, the prosecutor prepared a subsidiarity indictment using Article 468(1) in conjunction with Article 20(C) related to the act of causing injury resulting in serious harm, with a maximum penalty of eight years. ‘For further subsidiarity we also use Article 467(1) in conjunction with Article 20(C) in conjunction with Article 20(C) with a maximum of 7 years. We use that to charge the defendants,’ he explained. The caustic spray case against Andrie Yunus began from the defendants’ belief that the victim had insulted the TNI. ‘The defendants had known Andrie Yunus since 16 March 2025 when he forced entry and interrupted a hotel Fairmont Jakarta meeting,’ said Military Prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel Chk Muhammad Iswadi at the Military Court II-08, on Wednesday, 29 April 2026. ‘From that incident, the defendants judged that Andrie Yunus had insulted the TNI, even stepping on the institution.’ ‘At that time, the defendants were talking normally about personal life and duty; in the middle of the conversation, Edi mentioned a viral video of Andrie Yunus forcing entry and interrupting a session revising the TNI law at the Fairmont hotel,’ he added. Retired Chief of Strategic Intelligence Agency (BAIS) TNI, Vice Admiral (Rtd) Soleman B. Ponto, assessed that the actions of the four defendants in the caustic spray case could not be categorized as military operation or intelligence operation. In Ponto’s view, the defendants’ actions should be seen as private behaviour, more akin to ‘mischief’.