Roy Suryo's Pretrial: Expert Questions Application of ITE Law Articles
A criminal law expert, Didit Wijayanto Wijaya, testified in the pretrial hearing of Roy Suryo at the South Jakarta District Court on Monday, scrutinising the application of the Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law in the case. Didit highlighted that Articles 32 paragraph (1) and 35 of the ITE Law require an electronic document as the object of the criminal act. He explained that the disputed document in this case relates to a physical document, whereas Roy Suryo’s analysis originated from an electronic document uploaded on social media.
‘I explained that the ITE Law cannot be applied if the initial formal evidence is not an electronic document but a physical or hard copy document. That is not permissible. What is the purpose of the ITE Law then? It must be an electronic document,’ he told the panel of judges. Didit assessed that if this element was not fulfilled from the outset, then the initial evidence to apply Article 32 paragraph (1) was also non-existent. ‘If that article is applied, it means there was no initial evidence from the start. Let alone preliminary evidence, the initial evidence itself was absent. That is called article smuggling. We know it as legal smuggling,’ he stated.
Beyond scrutinising the article’s elements, Didit also commented on the content of the police report forming the basis of the investigation. After hearing the report’s narrative read out by Roy Suryo’s legal counsel, he opined that the substance was closer to an allegation of defamation or slander rather than a criminal offence under the ITE Law. He noted that for the ITE Law article to be applicable, the report should contain a description of electronic information or documents being altered, reduced, added, moved, or accessed unlawfully through an electronic system, which he did not find in the report.
The pretrial hearing is scheduled to resume on Wednesday with the agenda of presenting evidence from the respondent, Polda Metro Jaya. In this case, Roy Suryo is challenging the legality of his designation as a suspect by Polda Metro Jaya in a case involving alleged fake diplomas that implicated former President Joko Widodo. Through the pretrial motion, Roy Suryo is requesting the judge to grant all his demands, including the revocation of three investigation orders issued by Polda Metro Jaya during the 2025-2026 period.