Prita's Fight for Freedom

On 13 May, Prita Mulyasari (32), mother of a baby & infant, was arrested by the Banten Police on charges of Defamation against the Omni International Hospital in Tangerang, Banten.

Many people thought that the arrest was unnecessary because Prita only sent e-mails to her relatives, co-workers and friends complaining about the poor services she received from the hospital. The protests spread very rapidly and forced the Police to release her on 3 June. Afterward, the Tangerang District Court dismissed the criminal prosecution last July. But somehow, the District Attorney submitted a new prosecution against Prita.

Meanwhile, the hospital's Civil lawsuit was accepted by the Tangerang District Court ordering Prita to pay compensation amounting to 300 million Rupiah to the hospital. Later, the Banten High Court confirmed this verdict but lowered the compensation amount to 204 million Rupiah.

Further, Prita rejected the hospital's offer to cancel the lawsuit if Prita make a written apology to them. This is obvious because if she apologize it would surely mean that she has been wrong.
Instead, Prita decided to fight the verdict by filing an appeal with the Supreme Court.

The above courts' verdicts were protested by many people not only because they thought that they were unfair, but also because they were passed at a time when many injustice occurred, for example people who were allegedly involved in conspiracy against the leaders of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) still remain untouched by the law.

People in many parts of Indonesia are now making efforts to help Prita fight for her freedom. Many of them have been collecting large amount of coins. While members of the Regional Representative Council (DPD) have donated 50 million Rupiah to Prita.

For details on the above, please click here, here, here, here, here and here.

Considering the above, I hope that the honorable Supreme Judges at the Supreme Court would carefully use their thoughts, feelings, sights, sense in examining Prita's case, not merely based on legal aspects but other aspects as well. That way justice shall prevail.

Juliana's Twins & OMNI

Juliana and Kiki Kurniawan have reported OMNI International Hospital, Alam Sutera, to the Tangerang Police office, for alleged malpractice that caused blindness to their twin babies Jayden Christophel and Jared Christophel.

According to Suara Pembaruan, the story began on 26 May 2008 when Juliana gave premature birth (33 weeks) to Jayden (1.30 Kg) & Jared (1.50 Kg) at the said hospital. According to the babies’ Pediatrician Dr. Fredy Limawal, Jayden had problems with his lungs therefore should be treated in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and injected with Surfactan. Later, the Pediatrician told Juliana that both babies were having problems with their eyes, due to which fact Juliana & her husband asked that their babies to be treated by team of specialists. However, until the hospital released the babies after 42 days of treatment that costed Rp 125 millions, the only doctor who handled their babies was Dr Fredy.
Afterwards, the couple brought their babies to the Nusantara Eye Clinic then to a hospital in Australia, and they both diagnosed that the babies were blind because of damage to their eyes’ nerves. This is contradictory to the OMNI’s medical record which stated that both babies were normal.
After asking OMNI several times to be responsible for their malpractice, without any result, the couple filed the Police report. The couple’s lawyer O.C. Kaligis alleged that the hospital committed crime based on the Penal Code Articles 360 and 361 regarding action or omission that caused heavy wounds.

In response to the high profile media reports about what happened to the twin babies, last Sunday the hospital's director Dr. Bina Ratna gave a press conference. Poskota quoted her as saying that the hospital is ready to face legal action taken by Juliana & her husband. She added that the hospital has performed the correct procedures in providing medical treatment to the twin babies.

What has happened to Juliana and her twin sons are very frightening. I hope that the Police would investigate this case thoroughly to find out anyone who could possibly be responsible for the twin babies' blindness.

Prita has been Released from Jail

In response to the outcry by online supporters, public figures and presidential candidates, Prita Mulyasari, the mother of 2 small children, who was detained for 3 weeks for alleged Defamation of the OMNI International Hospital, Alam Sutera,Tangerang, was released by on Wednesday, 3 June 2009 (photo:courtesy of The Jakarta Globe).

In an interview with The Jakarta Globe, a spokesman of the Attorney General Office Jasman Simajuntak said that the status of Prita’s arrest has been changed into City Arrest. He added that Attorney General Hendarman Supanji had ordered an examination of the case to determine whether or not the District Prosecutor in Tangerang has properly used the Information and Electronic Transaction (ITE) Law as basis for the case.

Meanwhile, according to The Jakarta Post, the first trial of the Defamation Case will be held on Thursday morning, 4 June 2009. And the Tangerang District Prosecutor's Office's said that Prita is charged for violating the ITE Law Art. 27, and the Penal Code Articles 310 and 311, which carry a maximum sentence of six years in jail and maximum fine of Rp. 1 Billion.

Further, I would like to note that this case has received broad attention from public figures, including the candidates for the presidential election on 8 July.
The first was Jusuf Kalla who said on Wednesday that the detention is not correct, followed by Megawati's visit to the Tangerang Women Penitentiary on the same day in which she said the ITE Law should be reviewed, and President SBY's request to the Chief of National Police and the Attorney General that the case should be processed using conscience.

From the above development of Prita's Case, we can expect that the legal proceedings, Appeal for the Civil Lawsuit & Criminal Prosecution will carried out justifiably.

Arrested for Complaining against Hospital

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.