Judge Highlights Irregularities in Motive of Revenge Against Andrie Yunus

The panel of judges at the Military Court II-08 in Jakarta has highlighted irregularities in the motive of personal resentment or grudge held by members of the Headquarters Detachment of the Strategic Intelligence Agency (Denma BAIS) TNI, who threw acid at Andrie Yunus, Deputy External Coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KontraS).

The reason is that the Denma BAIS members, now seated as defendants, were not on duty when Andrie, along with a civil society coalition, interrupted the closed meeting discussing the TNI Bill at the Fairmont Hotel in March last year.

The judge also highlighted that the defendants only became Denma members in November 2025. According to the judge, the motive of resentment or personal grudge is worth questioning because the meeting interruption at the Fairmont Hotel occurred 7-8 months earlier.

The defendants in question are Defendant I Sergeant Two Edi Sudarko, Defendant II First Lieutenant Budhi Hariyanto Widhi, Defendant III Captain Nandala Dwi Prasetyo, and Defendant IV First Lieutenant Sami Lakka.

“What is their business with Andrie Yunus? What is their business with the TNI Bill? What is their business with the judicial review application (JR TNI Bill) to the Constitutional Court? What is the correlation with them carrying out (the acid throwing)? They’re just Denma soldiers,” asked the chief judge, Colonel Chk Fredy Ferdian Isnartanto.

Pabandya D 31 Pampers Dit B BAIS TNI, Lieutenant Colonel Chk Alwi Hakim Nasution, presented as a witness, stated that based on the defendants’ confessions, the acid throwing at Andrie was motivated by hurt feelings.

“Permission. Their confession to us was due to being hurt by seeing Andrie Yunus’s behaviour when forcing entry into the closed meeting (discussing the TNI Bill at the Fairmont Hotel), so the defendants felt hurt,” said Alwi.

“That’s not what I mean. They have no connection to AY [Andrie Yunus]. They didn’t know him initially, only knew him from TV, just like us. They never knew him, only from TV. How come they suddenly carried out such an action? Did you investigate if this was indeed an order?” the judge pressed.

“No, Your Honour,” Alwi admitted.

“Is it possible it was a special operation?” the judge continued.

“To our knowledge and investigation, no. The defendants just felt insulted and hurt by Andrie Yunus. Nothing else,” Alwi replied.

The judge then asked the witness that if there was indeed an order, which directorate section might carry out such an operation.

“I don’t know yet, I want to ask for our knowledge too. BAIS has Dir A, B, C, D, or whatever. For example, sorry, if this was an order, by order, command, intelligence operation, let’s say, which directorate would handle that?” the judge asked.

“The operations section has a department that handles it. That’s Directorate H, the operations section,” Alwi explained.

“Halong?” the judge confirmed.

“Yes. It has no connection to Denma,” Alwi said.

“What is H?” the judge asked.

“Operations,” Alwi clarified.

“So, the task forces are in Directorate H?” the judge continued, which Alwi confirmed.

“Now, they are in Denma, my question. Unless in Directorate H, then it might make sense, they would be directed there. For example. It’s far-fetched for Denma, who handle bases, to carry out such an action,” the judge said.

“We are actually confused too why the defendants did that because it has no connection to their daily routine work activities,” Alwi stated, admitting he was angry that the acid throwers turned out to be from Denma BAIS.

“Because in the indictment yesterday, they gathered first. Before these four, two first, just casual chatting. After that, they gathered. They are three officers and one non-commissioned officer. There’s a captain too, the senior one. It doesn’t connect, right? They don’t know AY, and they are in Denma, no connection to their main duties, yet they take such a step,” the judge said.

“Yes. It was done on their own initiative, done because of possible resentment according to their confession to us,” Alwi explained again the defendants’ confessions.

Demands Commander of Denma to Take Responsibility

In this trial, the judge asked the Commander of the Headquarters Detachment (Dandenma) of the Strategic Intelligence Agency (BAIS) TNI, Colonel Inf Heri Haryadi, also presented as a witness, to take responsibility for the acid-throwing incident.

“Was there any suspicion from their gathering of four?” the judge asked.

“Yes. Permission, before 13 March 2026, they were normal because by chance Defendant II, III, and IV had adjacent rooms. Work rooms. Only Defendant I was separate. Separate floor but same building. They were routine,” Heri said.

“Was there an order from Dandenma?” the judge pressed.

“Yes, no, Your Honour,” Heri admitted.

“You have been sworn in,” the judge reminded.

“Yes, there was none,” Heri firmly stated.

“Because it’s impossible for three officers and one non-commissioned officer to act on their own. Dandenma takes responsibility. How about that?” the judge said.

“Yes. Permission, we never ordered, including during command hours or roll calls, we never mentioned anything outside. We only mention or discuss things inside because our activities are quite packed and personnel fulfilment is only about 52 percent. So .. ,” Heri explained, before being cut off by the judge.

“How many Denma members are there?” the judge asked.

“Should be 163, only 84 fulfilled,” Heri answered.

Based on the prosecutor’s indictment letter, the reason the defendants threw acid at Andrie was because they were annoyed with Andrie’s behaviour, who often voiced issues regarding the expansion of militarism into the civilian domain.

This included Andrie’s actions with a civil society coalition interrupting the closed meeting between the DPR and TNI regarding the discussion of the TNI Bill at the Fairmont Hotel in March 2025.

“With that incident, the defendants considered Brother Andrie Yunus to have insulted the TNI institution, even trampling on the TNI institution,” the prosecutor said when reading the indictment letter in the previous trial.

The defendants are charged with violating