Nothing wrong with Prita’s email: IT expert

A witness testified Wednesday that a housewife charged with publicly defaming a hospital did not actually spread out information which prosecutors deem as libelous.
 
Wahyu Catur Wibowo, an informational technology (IT) expert from the University of Indonesia, told the Tangerang District Court that defendant Prita Mulyasari was the source of the information, but it was her friends who had spread it out by forwarding her email to others.
 
“Those who received the email then passed it on to their friends so that it formed a chain of information,” Wahyu said.  
 
Prita, a mother of two children, is accused of defaming Omni International Hospital by posting her complaint about the hospital’s poor service through email on Aug. 15, 2008.
 
Prosecutors Riyadi and Rachmawati Utami presented the IT lecturer to testify against Prita.
 
Wahyu said there was nothing wrong with Prita’s decision to send the email as long as the information was based on facts.
 
“The source of the email will face justice if the information he or she posts is untrue,” he said.       
         
Prosecutor Riyadi claimed that Wahyu’s testimony could serve as incriminating evidence to win the civil case over Prita.
 
On the contrary, Prita’s defense lawyers said the testimony went in favor of their client.
 
Presiding judge Arthur Hangewa postponed the hearing until next week to hear testimony of an Omni doctor who released Prita’s medical records when she was treated at the hospital, a criminal expert and a telematics expert.