Judge Rules Roy Suryo Misused Pretrial Motion to Delay Main Trial

The South Jakarta District Court has rejected a pretrial motion submitted by Roy Suryo regarding his suspect status in the defamation case involving the academic credentials of former President Joko Widodo. The judge ruled that the motion was a misuse of legal procedure. “Considering that the judge is of the opinion that Article 163 paragraph 1 letter a means that a pretrial examination can only delay the commencement of the main case examination if the main case file is transferred while the pretrial process is ongoing,” said Judge I Ketut Darpawan during the verdict reading in Ragunan, South Jakarta, on Monday. “However, if the main case file has already been transferred to the court and then a pretrial motion is filed one after another using Article 160 paragraph 3, then this must be considered an abuse of procedure,” the judge continued. The judge stated that Roy’s action was an attempt to delay the examination of the main case. The court found that filing the pretrial motion after the case had been transferred, and after the first pretrial had reached its conclusion stage, was a clear effort to stall and disrupt the main case proceedings. According to the judge, this constitutes a misuse of the pretrial mechanism. The court therefore rejected Roy’s pretrial motion regarding his suspect status in its entirety, deeming the application irrelevant. Previously, a single judge at the South Jakarta District Court had partially granted a separate pretrial motion by Roy concerning his search, arrest, and detention, though that ruling was stated not to affect the main case. Roy Suryo and Tifauzia Tyassuma, known as dr Tifa, were named suspects in the case of alleged defamation over the academic diploma of the seventh President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo. Their case files have been transferred to the East Jakarta District Court. Dr Tifa’s trial has progressed to the response to exceptions stage, pending an interim decision from the panel of judges, while Roy’s trial has yet to commence as it awaited the outcome of this pretrial motion at the South Jakarta District Court.