Three state institutions, namely the National Narcotics Agency (BNN), the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Police, have filed police reports over remarks by Haris that they say amount to defamation.

Tri Agus Susanto from the Yogyakarta Institute for Village Community Development (STPMD) said the three state institutions were arrogantly displaying their power by reporting Haris.

“The National Police, BNN and TNI should instead follow up on the information Haris discovered,” Tri said at a discussion in Menteng, Central Jakarta, on Saturday.

He was referring to testimony conveyed by death row convict Freddy Budiman to Haris in 2014, in which the drug lord alleged that officials from the police, BNN and TNI were involved in his international drug network. The testimony went viral in social media one day before Freddy was executed on the Nusakambangan prison island in Cilacap, Central Java, on July 29.

Freddy claimed in his testimony that he had managed to operate his drug network thanks to support from top officials of the three institutions. He did not reveal any names, however.

The three institutions filed reports against Haris with the police’s Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim) on Aug. 2.

Haris was entitled to state protection under freedom of speech, Tri said.

An academic from the University of Indonesia, Panata Harianja, urged President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to stop the death penalty against drug convicts. The government should solve the root problem of the widespread distribution of narcotics in the country without imposing the death penalty, he said.

“Death penalty ends chances for drug convicts to become justice collaborators,” Panata said at the discussion. (rez/ebf)