TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI) general secretary Muhammad Ismail Yusanto said that the organization has been intimidated since the government announced the plan to disband it. HTI has therefore formed a defense team comprising 1,000 members.
“The treatment we have been getting will be countered by HTI through a legal process,” he said at Ihza & Ihza Law Firm yesterday. He said that the lawyers hail from various regions in Indonesia. “We call it the TPHTI [HTI Defense Team].”
To manage the lawyers, HTI has appointed senior attorney Yusril Ihza Mahendra, who served as justice and human rights minister under the Megawati Soekarnoputri administration. Yusril has expressed his readiness to defend the HTI and fight against ‘the government’s arrogance’.
According to Yusril, the government has made the wrong move in its plan to disband the HTI, citing that it was in contravention of Article 28 of the 1945 Constitution on freedom of association and Law No. 17/2013 on mass organization. The government should have taken several steps already, from persuasive action to administrative sanction to suspension. “Only then, can [the government] disband [an organization] through court. The process is long, it could take five years,” Yusril said.
He said that the HTI has been intimidated by other mass organizations by collaborating with the police. “The HTI is in the right position, the government is wrong,” he said.
IRSYAN HASYIM | NINIS CHAIRUNNISA
