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Justices reject Baiq Nuril's challenge against Supreme Court's defamation conviction

In a controversial case that activists have said highlights the potential for abusing the Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law to incriminate victims, the Supreme Court has reject a review of its earlier decision to overturn a lower court's "not guilty" verdict.

Marguerite Afra Sapiie (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Fri, July 5, 2019

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Justices reject Baiq Nuril's challenge against Supreme Court's defamation conviction Baiq Nuril Maknun (Kompas.com/-)

T

he Supreme Court has rejected a petition for case review from Baiq Nuril Maknun, a West Nusa Tenggara woman who was convicted of defamation against her alleged sexual harasser.

Justices Margono, Desniyati and Suhadi rejected Nuril’s challenge against the Supreme Court's decision in September 2018, which found Nuril guilty of violating Article 27 of the Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law and sentenced her to six months in prison and a fine of Rp 500 million (US$34,644). 

“It is true that [her petition] has been rejected,” Supreme Court spokesperson Abdullah confirmed on Friday. 

The Supreme Court's earlier decision in September overturned a lower court’s verdict and found her guilty of violating the ITE law, as the justices believed Nuril had circulated a recording of a reportedly lewd phone call between her and Muslim, the then-principal of SMAN 7 Mataram senior high school where she was a teacher.

The defamation case has been criticized for using the controversial law to incriminate an alleged victim of sexual harassment, when the Mataram Education Agency reported Nuril for recording the phone call.

Read also: Defamation convict allegedly harassed multiple times by superior

Abdullah said that the justices who reviewed Nuril's petition found no errors in the court’s judicial process in overturning the lower court’s verdict.

The Mataram District Court had found Nuril not guilty of defamation in July 2017, shortly after which the prosecutors filed an appeal against the verdict with the Supreme Court.

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