TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Southeast Asia of Freedom Expression Network (SAFEnet) demanded President Joko Widodo or Jokowi to give amnesty to the former honorary teacher of SMAN (public high school) 7 Mataram, Baiq Nuril Maknun. The SAFEnet rejected the Supreme Court cassation ruling stated that Baiq was guilty of distributing the recording of the conversation with her principal.
“We demand the President through the Secretary of State to take the option of giving amnesty as a final step to stop this injustice,” SAFEnet volunteer Ika Ningtyas said in a press statement on Sunday, November 18.
Baiq Nuril was an honorary teacher at SMAN 7 Mataram who recorded her conversation with the former principal with the initials M in 2017. In the recording, the principal made a sexual harassment by sharing his experience of having sex with a woman who was not his wife.
Nuril recorded the conversation as a way to protect herself and as the evidence that she did not have a special relationship with the perpetrator. However, the recording was then spread without Baiq’s will.
M then reported Baiq on a charge of spreading the record. The panel of judges at the Mataram District Court ruled that Baiq was not guilty in 2017. The judge stated that the person distributing the recording was Nuril’s colleague.
The prosecutor appealed to the Supreme Court for the verdict, which ruled Baiq Nuril guilty with a prison sentence of six months and a fine of Rp500 million subsidiary three months in prison.
According to Ika, the Supreme Court's ruling did not pay attention to the facts of the trial at the Mataram District Court level. In the trial, Nuril was not proven to be distributing the content as alleged.
“Furthermore, there is no element of mens rea or evil intentions from Nuril while recording, because it is an act of defending herself from sexual harassment by her principal,” SAFEnet said.
M ROSSENO AJI
