Jakarta Pusat District Court Acquits Delpedro and Three Activists in August 2025 Riot Case

Jakarta – The Central Jakarta District Court handed down a surprising ruling in a case involving Delpedro Marhaen, the director of Lokataru Foundation, and three other activists linked to demonstrations in August 2025 that ended in violence. The panel of judges acquitted all four defendants of the charges brought by the Public Prosecutor’s Office. The verdict was read at a session on Friday, 6 March 2026, with the defendants found not proven to have committed the acts alleged by the state prosecutors.

“The defendants are acquitted therefore from the charges brought by the Public Prosecutor,” said the Presiding Judge Harika Nova Yeri.

Besides Delpedro, the three other acquitted defendants were Lokataru Foundation staff Muzaffar Salim, account administrator of @gejayanmemanggil Syahdan Husein, and Khariq Anhar, a student at Universitas Riau and administrator of Aliansi Mahasiswa Menggugat.

In this case, the four defendants were previously charged with disseminating false information and inciting the public in connection with demonstrations held in August last year. Prosecutors also included charges alleging involvement of a child in activities related to military or armed interests.

However, after examining various evidence and witness testimony in court, the panel found that the charges could not be proven.

The judges noted that the Public Prosecutor’s Office from the Jakarta Pusat District Attorney’s Office failed to prove that the defendants’ acts met the elements of disseminating false information intended to incite the public to commit violence or oppose the state apparatus.

During the trial, several witnesses were questioned, including the child witness named in the indictment. However, none testified that they were invited by the defendants to join the demonstrations or to commit violence.

“Rather, they were driven by reactions to the issue of the remuneration increase for Members of the House of Representatives and the death of Affan Kurniawan (an online motorcycle taxi driver),” the judge stated.

The panel also referred to a post on Lokataru Foundation’s Instagram account on 27 August 2025, which announced the opening of a complaint post and legal aid for students wanting to join the demonstration but facing threats.

The post did contain the phrase “kita lawan bareng”. However, according to the judges, that phrase could not be interpreted as an invitation to oppose state authorities.