Roy Suryo to Refile Compensation Lawsuit, Will Involve Finance Minister

Roy Suryo has confirmed he will resubmit a pretrial motion for compensation related to an arrest, search, and detention that were previously declared unlawful. This decision follows a ruling by the South Jakarta District Court, which deemed his initial application inadmissible because it lacked a necessary party.

Suryo said he accepted the court’s decision as part of the legal process. He noted that the ruling serves as a learning experience, both for himself and for the public who may file similar compensation claims in the future. “Whatever the result, we accept it in good faith. This is a learning process. It is useful not only for us and the legal team but also for the public. So people will know that if there is an issue of missing parties, it can be corrected and resubmitted,” Suryo said after the hearing at the South Jakarta District Court on Thursday.

The former Youth and Sports Minister stressed that his legal team has agreed to re-register the motion with the additional party identified by the judge. “The conclusion is to move forward. File again. Because the decision was not a rejection, do not write it as rejected. It was not accepted because of a missing party. Because that was the consideration, in the next filing we will add the party,” he explained.

Suryo stated that the party to be included in the next motion is the Minister of Finance. This follows the judge’s consideration that the authority to pay compensation rests with the Finance Minister under current regulations. He believes this reasoning arose because the government has yet to issue a Government Regulation as an implementing rule for Article 175, paragraph (5) of the Criminal Procedure Code, which governs the compensation payment mechanism. “Because there is no Government Regulation governing this matter, it ultimately falls back to the Ministry of Finance. If the regulation existed, it would be clear who makes the payment. Therefore, we will include the Ministry of Finance as a party,” he said.

However, Suryo revealed that the compensation lawsuit will not be filed immediately. His team will first submit another pretrial motion related to a travel ban and several other legal issues he believes need to be tested in court. “Tomorrow we will file the fourth pretrial motion regarding the travel ban and regulations that we believe are still contradictory. After that, we will resubmit the compensation claim,” he stated.

Suryo also admitted that the judge’s decision was unexpected for his legal team. He likened the consideration of the missing party to a “Joker” card appearing in a card game. “Today the judge played a Joker. That was beyond our calculations. But if the Joker comes out, we adjust our game. The point is we will follow the decision by completing the parties as considered by the judge,” he said.

Previously, the South Jakarta District Court pretrial judge declared that the compensation motion filed by Roy Suryo could not be accepted due to a formal defect. The judge opined that the Minister of Finance should have been included as a party, given that the authority for compensation payments rests with the ministry under prevailing regulations.