Judge rejects Roy Suryo's fourth pre-trial motion in Jokowi diploma case

The South Jakarta District Court has rejected a fourth pre-trial motion filed by Roy Suryo in connection with the alleged defamation case over the diploma of Indonesia’s seventh president, Joko Widodo (Jokowi).

“The court rules to reject the petitioner’s pre-trial motion in its entirety,” said sole judge I Ketut Darpawan while reading the verdict at the South Jakarta District Court on Wednesday.

In this latest motion, Roy Suryo challenged the legality of his travel ban, naming the Metro Jaya Regional Police as the respondent.

In his considerations, the judge found that the motion filed by Roy Suryo was no longer relevant. The judge emphasised that Roy Suryo’s status has now changed from suspect to defendant following the transfer of the main case file to the court.

“Since the main case was transferred by the public prosecutor to the East Jakarta District Court and has been registered, the authority over the case has shifted to the East Jakarta District Court and the petitioner’s status has changed to defendant,” he said.

However, in this case, Roy was deemed to have deliberately filed motions one by one after the main case had entered the court. The judge issued a stern warning over this legal manoeuvre.

“If the main case has been transferred to the court, and only then pre-trial motions are filed one by one using Article 160 paragraph 3, this must be considered an abuse of legal procedure,” he said.

Previously, in the first motion, the South Jakarta District Court judge had partially granted Roy’s motion regarding the procedures for search, arrest and detention. However, that ruling was declared not to affect the main case.

In the second motion, Roy challenged his suspect status, but the judge rejected the request as it was deemed irrelevant.

In the third motion, Roy sought compensation from the Metro Jaya Regional Police. However, the judge declared the motion inadmissible due to a formal defect because Roy did not include the Minister of Finance as a respondent.

In this case, Roy Suryo and Tifauzia Tyassuma, also known as Dr Tifa, have been named suspects in the alleged defamation case over Jokowi’s diploma. The case files for both have been transferred to the East Jakarta District Court, but the main trial has not yet commenced as it awaits the rulings on the series of pre-trial motions.