Judge: Roy Suryo's Pretrial Motion Cannot Be Used to Delay Main Trial

A South Jakarta District Court judge has ruled that the pretrial motion filed by Roy Suryo in an alleged defamation and slander case concerning the authenticity of 7th Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s diploma cannot be used as grounds to delay the examination of the main case. In the pretrial verdict hearing held at the South Jakarta District Court on Monday, sole judge I Ketut Darpawan assessed that the legal step taken by the applicant had the potential to hinder the main trial process. “Considering that the Applicant’s action of submitting a pretrial motion regarding the suspect designation after the case transfer, and after the first pretrial reached the conclusion stage, is a clear form of an attempt to delay and disrupt the examination process of the main case,” said sole judge I Ketut Darpawan. According to the judge, this action constitutes a form of abuse of the pretrial mechanism. In his consideration, the judge also explained that Article 163 paragraph (1) letter a is interpreted as a provision that only allows a pretrial to delay the commencement of the main case examination if the case file has been transferred to the court while the pretrial process is ongoing. Conversely, if the main case has already been transferred to the court first, then a pretrial motion submitted in stages is considered a misuse of legal procedure. The South Jakarta District Court therefore rejected the entire second pretrial motion filed by Roy Suryo regarding his suspect designation. The case is registered under number 108/Pid.Pra/2026/PN JKT.SEL. Following the rejection, Roy Suryo’s legal counsel, Refly Harun, stated that his client intends to continue legal efforts by filing a third pretrial motion.