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Supreme Court overturns acquittal of housewife Prita

After exonerating housewife Prita Mulyasari from civil lawsuit charges, the Supreme Court announced Friday that it had sentenced her to six months’ imprisonment for distributing a slanderous email against a private hospital

Ina Parlina (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Sat, July 9, 2011

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Supreme Court overturns acquittal of housewife Prita

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fter exonerating housewife Prita Mulyasari from civil lawsuit charges, the Supreme Court announced Friday that it had sentenced her to six months’ imprisonment for distributing a slanderous email against a private hospital.

Justice Salman Luthan, who was one of the judges for Prita’s appellate court case, said that the bench had approved the demand by the Tangerang Prosecutor’s Office, which had been ruled out in the previous courts.

“We have sent her to jail for six months with one year of probation,” Salman told The Jakarta Post on Friday over the phone.

He declined to disclose the panel’s consideration for the ruling, saying that he was the one who supported Prita’s acquittal.

The case started in August 2008, when Prita sent an email to relatives and friends about the poor medical treatment and customer service she received from Omni International hospital in Tangerang, Banten.

The email went viral as recipients kept forwarding it to various mailing lists and forums. A month later, the hospital filed both civil and criminal lawsuits against her.

The Tangerang Prosecutor’s Office charged her under the Criminal Code and the law on information and electronic transactions, which carries a maximum sentence of five years’ imprisonment.

The prosecutors later detained Prita, which drew public attention as she was a mother to two children.

In May 2009, the Tangerang District Court ruled in favor of the hospital in the civil lawsuit. The ruling required Prita to pay around Rp 340 million (US$40,120) to the hospital.

At this time, Prita’s plight started garnering public sympathy.

The outburst of public support through mailing lists and Facebook led to the “Coins for Prita” movement to help her pay the damages through donations. The public managed to collect more than Rp 800 million, which Prita gave to a non-profit cause.

Under public scrutiny, the Tangerang District Court acquitted Prita of all criminal charges in June last year while the civil lawsuit went on to the Banten High Court.

The high court ruled in favor of the hospital, although decreasing the fine from Rp 340 million to Rp 204 million.

Prita then lodged an appeal to the Supreme Court, and her latest legal attempt was challenged by the hospital with its demand for Rp 2 billion on appeal, which the court turned down last October.

Edy Yulianto, the head of the inter-agency unit at the Supreme Court, said that the appellate court delivered its ruling on June 30 this year after both the prosecutors and Prita requested the appeal on April 12, 2010.

The case was registered here. However, as of Friday noon, the ruling was not yet available on the Supreme Court’s website on rulings http://putusan.mahkamahagung.go.id/.

Edy promised the ruling would be available on the website this month. “We will also explain it to the public.”

Prita’s lawyer OC Kaligis told the Post that he felt extremely disappointed with the ruling, saying that Prita’s case was merely a murmur of disappointment against the public service of a hospital.

“Such a ruling… where was the sense of justice?” Kaligis said over the phone. “How come they send people to jail because of uttering their disappointment in a public service?”

Kaligis claimed that his team has not yet been officially informed about the ruling by the Supreme Court, saying that he first heard about it from the media. He pleaded that Prita was a mother.

Slamet Yuwono, her other lawyer, called the court’s decision “inconsistent”, as Prita has been cleared of the civil suit charges.

Rully, Prita’s sister, said that Prita was shocked to hear that she had to work on her case again.

“Prita’s youngest child is still one year old and they have a happy life. It would be sad [for Prita] to be apart again from the family,” Rully said as quoted by news agency Antara.

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