TAUD Suspects 16 Perpetrators in Acid Attack on Andrie Yunus
The Advocacy Team for Democracy (TAUD) suspects that 16 individuals were involved in the acid attack on KontraS activist Andrie Yunus on 12 March 2026. TAUD representative Alghiffari Aqsa stated that this suspicion stems from TAUD’s internal findings, which investigated based on recordings from 37 surveillance cameras around the incident location on Jalan Salemba I-Talang, Central Jakarta.
Alghiffari explained that TAUD initially suspected 19 people captured on the surveillance cameras. However, TAUD narrowed the number of suspected field perpetrators to 16 based on their interconnected positions around the attack site on Andrie.
“So we adjusted several CCTV footages and compared them, and it turned out these people were coordinating. It turned out these people were at the same point. It turned out these people were signalling to each other,” he said during a hearing with Commission III of the House of Representatives (DPR) at the Senayan DPR complex in Jakarta on Tuesday, 31 March 2026.
TAUD consists of several non-governmental organisations urging the government to uncover the chain of command behind the acid attack on the Deputy Coordinator of the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS), Andrie Yunus. They include KontraS, the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI), Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta), LBH Pers, Amar Law Firm, Imparsial, Trend Asia, and Greenpeace Indonesia.
On 12 March, the police only released two suspected perpetrators who acted as the executors of the attack during a press conference on 18 March. Meanwhile, at the same time, the Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI) stated that they had detained four suspected perpetrators from the Strategic Intelligence Agency’s Military Police Unit (Denma). Metro Jaya Police stated that the police had handed over this case to the TNI Military Police Centre.
Alghiffari expressed surprise at the discrepancy in the number of perpetrators released by the police and TNI. He also highlighted the closed nature of the TNI’s investigation, which to this day has not released the identities of the suspected perpetrators.
“So there is a violation of the principle of equality before the law. If civilians are paraded in front of the media, paraded in front of the public that these are the perpetrators. Then we can confirm with witnesses or victims that these are the perpetrators,” said Alghiffari.
He hopes that the investigation of this case does not end when the police hand it over to the TNI Military Police Centre. Alghiffari emphasised that TAUD, along with a coalition of civil society, is urging the formation of a Joint Fact-Finding Team (TGPF) to thoroughly and independently investigate this case.
TAUD assesses the acid attack as a planned intelligence operation against civil society, referring to the mobility of the 16 people suspected of stalking and tailing Andrie’s activities, throwing the acid, and conditioning the field.
“(The investigation) please be re-evaluated and continued until at least there are 16 people who must be processed legally plus intellectual actors, financiers, or people behind this intelligence operation,” he said.