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Surabaya mayor retracts defamation report against homemaker after apology
The report was dropped on Friday after Zikria sent several apology letters to the mayor.
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Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini (center) holds up an apology letter from a woman accused of defaming the mayor in a Facebook post at a press conference in Surabaya, East Java, on Wednesday. (courtesty of Surabaya city administration public relations office/-)
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urabaya Mayor Tri “Risma” Rismaharini has retracted a police report she had filed against Zikria Dzatil, a homemaker in Bogor, West Java, for allegedly comparing her to a frog in a Facebook post.
Read also: Woman arrested, receives 'death threats' for Facebook post about Surabaya mayor
The report was dropped on Friday after Zikria sent several apology letters to the mayor, said Surabaya administration legal head Ira Susilowati.
“As the perpetrator has apologized, the mayor has issued a letter to revoke the [defamation] report,” Ira said on Saturday as quoted by kompas.com.
Surabaya Police general crimes unit head Adj. Sr. Comr. Sudamiran said the police had received the letter and would proceed accordingly.
Zikria was arrested on Jan. 31 for allegedly violating the contentious Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law by posting a photo of the mayor sitting on what appears to be a riverbank, calling her kodok betina (female frog).
The arrest was based on Zikria’s now-deactivated Facebook page, along with a screenshot of the controversial post, which was reported to the Surabaya Police on Jan. 21 by the Surabaya administration.
Zikria has since expressed remorse over the post and asked for Risma’s forgiveness.
Risma previously acknowledged that she had personally filed a police report against Zikria, citing her parents’ dignity as a reason.
“If I am a frog, that means my mother is a frog,” she said. (mfp)
