Prita Mulyasari (32), mother of two children below 5 years old, has been detained by the Tangerang District Attorney in the Tangerang Women's Penitentiary since 13 May 2009 (Photo:Facebook).
According to the Tempo newspaper, Prita was detained because she has complained, through a mailing list, about the bad medical treatments that she experienced at the OMNI International Hospital in Alam Sutera, Tangerang. Her e-mail then spreaded to many places including the Reader's Letters Collumn of Detik. Due to which fact, the hospital reported Prita to the Police who charged her with committing Slander based on the Information and Electronic Transaction Law No. 11 Year 2008 (ITE), Article 27 Par. 3, which carries a maximum penalty of 6 years imprisonment or a maximum Fine of Rp 1 Billion.
In this regards, a member of the District Attorney said that his office received the case Reg.no. 55-1/2009 from the Jakarta Police on 25 May 2009.
Beside the above criminal charges, Prita is also facing Civil Lawsuit initiated by the hospital with the District Court of Tangerang under Reg.no : 300/PDG/ 6/2008. Although a verdict has been passed, but the Head of the District Court refused to give explaination saying that both disputing parties have submitted appeals with the High Court on 25 May 2009. He added that the Criminal Case shall began within this week.
The above case shows that conveying messages through the internet can be so risky, therefore one should be careful so as not to annoy other people.
However, I hope that the implementation of the ITE Law in this case would consider Prita's specific condition, e.g she is a mother of two very small children, almost impossible for her to run away or obstruct the investigation, therefore it is not necessary to detain her any longer.
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