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egal activists condemned a Supreme Court ruling that upheld the Jakarta High Court verdict which sentenced a defendant to six months in prison for defaming a private company in an open letter to a national daily.

Business owner, Khoe “Aseng” Seng Seng, was given the sentence after being found guilty of defaming real estate developer PT Duta Pertiwi.

In an open letter printed in Kompas and Suara Pembaruan dailies in 2006, Aseng complained that he had been conned by the company which had sold land that it did not own .

“The Supreme Court’s ruling is in violation of human rights’ principles which guarantee the freedom to express opinions,” said Sinung Karto from the human rights watchdog Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KontraS).

Karto maintained that what Aseng wrote in the papers did not constitute libel or defamation as it was based on facts.

PT Duta Pertiwi filed a defamation suit against Aseng in 2006 and won the case at the East Jakarta District Court, The court found Aseng guilty of defaming the company in the written piece and sentenced him to six months in prison.

Aseng lost his appeal twice, first at the Jakarta High Court and recently at the Supreme Court.

Aseng purchased a kiosk from the company in 2006 and later found out that it was built on a plot of land owned by the city government.

He then wrote a letter to the editors of the two papers expressing his grievances over the deal.

“The letters to the editors that Aseng wrote were opinions and not news. In fact, the company should sue the media where Aseng’s piece was published, as they are the ones who should be responsible according to the press law,” said Dedi Ali Ahmad from the Press Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Pers).

He said that the Supreme Court had set a bad precedent with the ruling.

Aseng said he learned about the Supreme Court ruling last week.

He said that he only exercised freedom of expression when writing the letter to the editor.

“I did not know where to air my grievances so I wrote the open letter. I have contacted lawyers of the company but I did not receive a response,” he said.

Aseng said that during the court trial he brought as evidence all documents relating to his ownership of the kiosk but judges had ignored them.

Sinung said that rights groups would assist Aseng to file a case review before the Supreme Court.

The groups would also file a report on several irregularities during the legal proceedings to the Judicial Commission.

Lawyers representing Aseng suspected that there had been foul play in handling the case.

In 2009, the Tangerang District Court ruled in favor of a private hospital in a civil suit requiring defendant Prita Mulyasari to pay around Rp 340 million (US$40,120) to the hospital.

Prita was found guilty of distributing slanderous emails against the hospital.

The Supreme Court exonerated Prita from civil suit charges but sentenced the mother of two to six months in prison.

In January 2010, a farmer in Kulon Progo regency, Yogyakarta, Tukijo, was convicted of criminal defamation in 2010 for asking a subdistrict head for information about the result of a land appraisal.