Nabilah O’Brien’s Legal Counsel Question the Criminal Basis for Disseminating CCTV Footage
Nabilah O’Brien’s legal counsel, Goldie Natasya Swarovski, has questioned the charges levelled against her client in relation to the dissemination of CCTV footage. Goldie described the police’s move to declare her client a suspect as highly unusual and potentially setting a negative precedent for members of the public seeking to reveal criminal activity.
‘The CCTV footage is real, the victim is real, and the material losses are real. Even the main perpetrators, referred to as Z and ESR, have already been named as suspects at the police station. Yet why has our client, who circulated the evidence, become a suspect? This is odd; the whole country may be perplexed by this,’ she said at a press conference on Friday (6 March).
She questioned the legal basis or the criminal elements used by investigators to charge the owner of the Bibi Kelinci Kopitiam restaurant in Kemang. She argued that if disseminating CCTV footage is regarded as a crime, the public will be unwilling to help uncover crime that is currently widespread.
‘If disseminating CCTV footage is indeed a criminal act, people will not want to share evidence. Yet crime now seems to be everywhere,’ she asserted.
Moreover, Goldie said the defence team remains unclear on the reasons behind the status as a suspect. She described her client’s action as a form of transparency about the facts on the ground.
‘So if you ask how this happened (to become a suspect)? We do not know either. Where is the element? We are all equally puzzled,’ she concluded.
The case began when Nabilah O’Brien uploaded CCTV footage showing a couple, initials ZK and ESR, taking 14 food and drink orders from her restaurant without paying. The post went viral on social media.
Nabilah reported the incident to Mampang Prapatan Police Station. Then, on 30 September 2025, ZK and ESR reported Nabilah to the Indonesian Police’s Criminal Investigation Agency (Bareskrim) for alleged violations of the Electronic Information and Transactions Law (UU ITE), defamation, and slander.
On 24 February 2026, the Mampang Prapatan Police Station named ZK and ESR as suspects in a case of alleged theft. Subsequently, on 28 February 2026, Nabilah was named a suspect by the Cyber Crime Directorate (Dittipidsiber) of Bareskrim Polri for alleged UU ITE violations and defamation.
The owner of Bibi Kelinci Kopitiam Kemang, South Jakarta, Nabilah O’Brien, has described the designation as a suspect by Bareskrim as highly odd.
Police say they will investigate the controversy surrounding Nabilah O’Brien’s designation as a suspect.
Read the full chronology of the Bibi Kelinci Kemang case. Nabilah O’Brien, the owner, became a suspect after reporting customers who did not pay.
KOMISI III of the House of Representatives (DPR) also showed attention to the case involving Bibi Kelinci Kemang owner Nabilah O’Brien. She became a suspect for reporting customers who did not pay.
Criminal Law lecturer at Trisakti University, Azmi Syahputra, highlighted the suspect designation of Bibi Kelinci Kopitiam Kemang owner Nabilah O’Brien.
“The context is clear.”