Amnesty Letter for Baiq Nuril to Be Read in Plenary Meeting

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - House of Representatives (DPR) speaker Bambang Soesatyo assured the amnesty letter for Baiq Nuril would be read out during a plenary meeting on Tuesday, July 16.

“If the letter has arrived on my desk, I’ll read it out in the plenary meeting tomorrow,” said Bambang when met in the residence of 3rd Indonesian President BJ Habibie, Patra Kuningan, South Jakarta, Monday, July 15.

Bambang said he has not checked the letter at his office because he went straight to Habibie's house right after inaugurating the head of the House's commission III. However, the DPR secretary-general informed him the letter was there.

House sec-gen Indra Iskandar ensured the amnesty letter had been forwarded to the DPR speaker. “The letter from the Palace arrives 20 minutes ago. It will be listed on the plenary meeting's agenda tomorrow morning and will be read out,” said Indra when asked for confirmation today at 17:50 local time.

Baiq Nuril, a former staffer of SMAN 7 Mataram High School, got six months' imprisonment and a Rp500 million fine for violating Article 27 (1) of the ITE Law. She was found guilty of spreading "immoral content" by revealing the school headmaster`s verbal sexual harassment against her. Her appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court (MA), thus she filed a letter of amnesty to President Jokowi.

Bambang further affirmed that the discussion on amnesty for Baiq Nuril would run smoothly in the parliament. “Because this is about humanity, there is no inhumanity in the DPR,” he concluded.

DEWI NURITA