Haris Azhar Urges Case of Acid Attack on Andrie Yunus to Be Brought to General Court
Founder of the Lokataru Foundation, Haris Azhar, emphasised that the handling of the acid attack case against KontraS activist Andrie Yunus must be brought to a general court, not a military court. This is because the victim is a civilian and the incident occurred in a civilian space.
“(The Andrie case) must not be resolved in a military court. The victim is a civilian. The incident did not take place in a military barracks. The locus is civilian,” Haris stated during the discussion “Challenging the Silencing and Impunity of Attacker Activists” held by LP3ES in Jakarta on Thursday (19/3).
Haris assessed that the case should be handled by the police and receive direct support from Prabowo Subianto. He also criticised the articles applied to the alleged perpetrators, deeming them inappropriate.
“The articles used are not right, assault. This is a murder article. So the article should be murder. From the planning model. Soldiers cannot possibly act on their own. There is someone controlling, there is funding,” he said.
Furthermore, Haris urged that the investigation of the case be conducted thoroughly up to the intellectual actors. He doubted the involvement of the perpetrators only at the lower level.
“If not revealed, this shows that there is indeed an operation above it. It’s impossible only at the small fry level,” he stressed.
Nevertheless, Haris appreciated the police’s performance in uncovering the case. “The police have worked well so far, we can appreciate it, good,” he said.
In contrast, he questioned the steps taken by the TNI’s Puspom, which suddenly detained four TNI soldiers suspected of being involved in the case.
“When was the investigation? What made these people detained?” said the former KontraS Coordinator.
According to Haris, the process carried out by the police appears more transparent because it goes through clear investigation to prosecution stages, unlike the steps taken by the military side.
“Which soldiers? Directly detained and the initials of the names differ from the police. The number is also different,” he revealed.
He also assessed that the data differences between the police and TNI have the potential to make the case stop at the field perpetrators. Moreover, he mentioned suspicions of involvement from TNI’s BAIS.
“This is the initial seeds that this case will have a plot twist,” he said.
“We have a lot of experience that in such cases, A and B are scapegoated. In the (Andrie Yunus) case, this is very possible, especially since it involves BAIS. The structure should be dismantled,” Haris continued.
Meanwhile, Polda Metro Jaya had previously revealed two suspected perpetrators with initials BHC and MAK on Wednesday (18/3/2026). Director of General Criminal Investigation Polda Metro Jaya, Iman Imannudin, stated that the number of perpetrators could still increase.
“However, from our investigation results, we do not rule out the possibility that the perpetrators could be suspected to be more than four,” Iman said.
Not long after, Puspom TNI announced the detention of four TNI soldiers with initials Captain NDP, Lieutenant SL, Lieutenant BHW, and Sergeant ES. The four are now detained at Puspom TNI and will be handed over to Pomdam Jaya.
According to him, the law enforcement process for this case handled by Polda Metro Jaya is a positive step.
Prabowo also stated that the state will not tolerate any form of violence against citizens, including against activists who voice criticism.
Puspom TNI has succeeded in breaking the sceptical stigma of the public regarding the handling of legal cases involving rogue apparatus.
Setara Institute urges the formation of an Independent TPF for the acid attack case on Andrie Yunus. 4 BAIS TNI members detained, Commission III of the DPR forms a Working Committee.
The Ministry of Human Rights stated that the acid attack case against KontraS Activist Andrie Yunus has strategic dimensions, attracting wide public attention as well as international spotlight.