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View all search resultsOrdered to return scholarship funds, Veronica Koman pleads for justice
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W
ith accusations mounting against her, Indonesian human rights lawyer Veronica Koman has said she is being forced to return hundreds of millions of rupiah in government-sponsored scholarships in what she claims is a move to financially punish her as she pleads for Finance Minister Sri Mulyani's impartiality in handling her case.
Veronica, who is currently residing in Australia, said she was forced to return scholarship money totaling Rp 773.8 million (US$52,760) from the Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP) that she received in September 2016.
“The Indonesian government has imposed a financial punishment as its latest effort to pressure me to stop advocating human rights issues in Papua,” Veronica said in a statement obtained by The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
The public lawyer was a recipient of a scholarship program run under the Finance Ministry that supported her pursuit of a master's of law at the Australian National University.
She said the request was made by the LPDP because of her failure to return home to Indonesia after her studies, a claim she said was baseless as she returned in September 2018 after completing her master’s degree.
She explained that in October 2018, she joined the Jayapura-based Human Rights Lawyers Association for Papua (PAHAM Papua), for which she advocated human rights issues in the country’s easternmost province. Veronica also said she went to Switzerland in March to attend an event with the United Nations in and returned to Indonesia right after.
Furthermore, the former public attorney for the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta) said she gave pro-bono legal services to Papuan activists in three separate trials in Timika, Papua, from April to May 2019.
