Questions Over TNI's Involvement in Andrie Yunus Case: Deemed Sudden, Suspected Not the Perpetrators

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - The TNI’s step to announce the involvement of four soldiers in the acid attack case against Andrie Yunus, Deputy Coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KontraS), has raised suspicions. This disclosure is considered highly sudden amid the ongoing police investigation process. Andrie Yunus’s legal team, M. Fadhil Alfathan, assessed that revealing the perpetrators’ identities close to the start of the internal investigation raises significant questions. According to the statement from the TNI’s Head of Information Centre (Kapuspen), Major General Aulia, the internal investigation process was only conducted on Tuesday night (17/3/2026). “It was only done last night. So we are quite surprised and until now we are still questioning what kind of investigation was carried out?” Fadhil said at the YLBHI office in Menteng, Central Jakarta, on Wednesday (18/3/2026). Additionally, Fadhil noted that the current investigation and prosecution processes are being handled by the Metro Jaya Police. All evidence and witness examinations have also been managed by the police. He assessed that there is no clarity yet on the evidence used to designate the alleged perpetrators. Fadhil even suspects that this case might be directed to be seen merely as an individual action, not a more serious attack on a human rights defender. “The question is, on what basis was the arrest of these four people made? We are worried that these four people might not actually be the real perpetrators,” Fadhil said. “Or it is an effort to then diminish this issue into an individual problem, a spontaneous problem,” he continued. “We urge the TNI’s Military Police, which has made the arrest and secured the perpetrators, to hand over the perpetrators to the Metro Jaya Police,” said Fadhil, who is also the Director of the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH). According to him, the legal process in the police is deemed more accountable. He also highlighted the potential conflict of interest in military courts. “Because the perpetrators, prosecutors, and judges are in the same institution and under the ‘corps spirit’, namely the TNI corps spirit,” Fadhil stated.