Prita Mulyasari's trial Wednesday saw telecommunications and cyber expert Roy Suryo attacked by defence lawyers questioning his credibility as an expert witness.
Prosecutors for the trial against Prita, a mother of two charged with allegedly defaming Omni International Hospital in a widely circulated email, brought Roy Suryo to the stand as a witness. But defender Slamet Yuwono questioned Roy's expertise in telematics.
"I'd like to ask where you completed your S1 *bachelor's degree*? Where did you go for your S2 *master's degree*? Do you have qualifications as a telematics expert?" Slamet asked as quoted by kompas.com.
Roy testified that Prita could not be held responsible for spreading the email that allegedly defamed Omni International Hospital in Tangerang.
He said the evidence proved Prita had only sent email once to 20 addresses. Prita's friends were the ones who later forwarded the email to more people. "But Prita was still the trigger for the email's spread through the Internet," he said as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.
That statement triggered Prita's lawyers to question Roy's credibility as an expert witness in the trial.
Last week, information technology (IT) expert from the University of Indonesia Wahyu Catur Wibowo testified that, while defendant Prita Mulyasari had written the email complaining about the hospital's poor service, she was not responsible for its widespread circulation.
He said friends who received Prita's email forwarded it to their friends and it became a chain email, circulating to countless others. Defender Slamet Juwono said that Wahyu's testimony sided with their client.
Meanwhile, the Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsam), the Indonesian Human Rights and Legal Aid Association (PBHI), the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation, the Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR) and the Indonesia Media Defense Litigation Network (IMDLN) filed an amicus curiae brief Tuesday.
"Through amicus curiae, we want to give our views to the panel of judges on how the article for defamation can be categorized as a rubber article that can trap anyone without looking at the context and it is not in line with human rights conventions that have been acknowledged and ratified by the Republic of Indonesia," NGO representative Anggara said as quoted by kompas.com.
Prita sought treatment at Omni Hospital in August last year, where she had some blood samples taken and doctors said she had to be hospitalized. Prita said as she did not improve, she sought treatment at another hospital. She later sent an email to several friends, describing her experience at Omni Hospital.
Prita's case received significant media attention after the Internet community found out prosecutors had used a defamation article in the Information and Electronic Transactions Law to detain her.
