Former vice president Jusuf Kalla was fined Rp 72 million (US$8,000) and ordered to make a public apology through major media outlets after being found guilty in a defamation case at a Jakarta district court.
The plaintiff, Raden Panji Utomo, was a doctor and former volunteer in Aceh, which was hit by the 2004 tsunami.
He said he was defamed by then vice president Kalla while he was participating in a rally in the province in September 2006.
Kalla reportedly called him “insane” for requesting Rp 5 trillion from the government.
The remarks were published in Media Indonesia and Poskota newspapers, but Panji only found out about them in late 2008.
Panji denied he had asked for any money and claimed he was just voicing the demands of the refugees he was coordinating, who had asked for money to start up businesses.
“I filed the lawsuit to Central Jakarta District Court in February 2008. I was at first afraid of bringing the case to the court as Pak Kalla was then a vice president,” Panji told detik.com on Monday.
He decided to go to court after consulting with his lawyer, Wakil Kamal, who acted as his lawyer when he requested a judicial review against the subversion laws at the Constitutional Court, which later ruled the laws should be scrapped.
Panji, who was imprisoned for three months on charges of subversion, won kudos including from the Alliance of Independent Journalists for filing the judicial review of the articles considered by journalists as inimical to press freedom.
“The panel of judges issued the ruling in December 2009. Pak Kalla must apologize in 11 print and electronic media and pay immaterial losses of Rp 72 million. I heard he has appealed,” Panji said.
Kalla was represented by state lawyers when he was still at office and is now represented by his personal lawyer.
“I am open for mediation if there is any clarification [from Kalla], as the slander had attacked my dignity and also that of my family,” Panji said.
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