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Gofar Hilman denies coercing accuser to apologize
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YouTube personality Gofar Hilman is pictured in an Instagram post on May 31, 2021. (Instagram/Courtesy of Gofar Hilman) (Instagram/Courtesy of Gofar Hilman)
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ouTube personality and influencer Gofar Hilman has addressed an apology video made by a woman who had previously accused him of sexual harassment, asserting that he did not coerce her into making it.
A viral Twitter post by a woman with the username @quweenjojo alleged in June 2021 that Gofar had groped her during a party at which he was a celebrity guest. The user claimed the incident had occurred in 2018 in Malang, East Java, that a cheering crowd of men had seen the incident and that another person had taken her aside to keep her safe from Gofar and his group.
Gofar, who gained popularity as a radio station DJ, denied the allegations in an Instagram video and claimed he had been framed.
On Feb. 11, the poster, Hafsyarina “Syerin” Sufa Rebowo, for the first time using her real name, apologized in a Twitter video with her parents by her side, saying that the original accusation was “false [and was] made based on my own delusion and imagination”.
She said she was “under the influence of alcohol” on Aug. 19, 2018, and that “Gofar’s sexual harassment did not actually happen”.
Social media users have had divergent reactions to the apology, with some demanding that Gofar’s detractors apologize for misjudging him and others noting details that they say seem off about the video.
In response, Gofar wrote on Twitter that after nine months of trying, he had finally had the opportunity meet with his accuser in a mediation session backed by the police on Feb. 10.
"Even before I presented any evidence or gave a defense, the person concerned consciously and without coercion immediately admitted that the tweet she wrote on Twitter on June 8, 2021, was not true in front of me and the authorities," Gofar said on Feb. 12.
Gofar emphasized that he did not force his accuser to say “things that contradict the facts she presented during mediation”, and that the speculation about power abuse was beyond his control. He said he had forgiven her.
In 2021, Gofar was removed from the multiplatform lifestyle business Lawless Jakarta, which he cofounded, following the allegations.
The Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation of the Indonesian Women’s Association for Justice (LBH APIK) said in 2021 that they had received reports from at least eight women claiming to have been harassed by Gofar.
Following the accuser’s apology, LBH APIK and the Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SAFEnet) made statements of respect for her decision “regardless of the reasons the victim had at the time and the actions taken afterward”. They emphasized that the woman had filed for a revocation of power of attorney on the same day she attended the police mediation session.
