The Makassar Human Rights Court in South Sulawesi ruled in December 2022 that the Bloody Paniai incident was a gross human rights violation but found Isak Sattu, a retired army major and the only accused on trial in relation to the case, was not guilty of “crimes against humanity.” Isak, who was a liaison officer with the Paniai Military Command (Kodim) at the time of the incident, was cleared of all charges.

Two judges on the five-member bench dissented, saying that Isak was guilty for failing to stop the shooting as part of his duty. AGO prosecutors had demanded that Isak be sentenced to 10 years in prison.

AGO spokesman Ketut Sumedana told The Jakarta Post that the request for a cassation appeal was filed with the Supreme Court sometime before the 14-day deadline.

Commenting on demands by rights activists, he said the AGO had no plan to reopen the case or investigate any other potential suspects so far.

“We will be waiting for the Supreme Court's cassation ruling. If the ruling says anyone must be held accountable [for the gross human rights violation], then yes [we can reinvestigate]," Ketut said recently.

The fatal shooting of civilians in Paniai occurred on Dec. 8, 2014, when security forces opened fire on a crowd of demonstrators protesting the alleged beating of a youth the previous day by members of the Indonesian Military (TNI). Five people, including four teenagers, were killed during the incident and 21 other civilians were injured.

The victims’ family members found it hard to believe that only one person had been brought to trial, suspecting the government had held a show trial merely to improve its reputation in the eyes of the international community without real intention of carrying out justice.

The government previously said pushing a tribunal over the Bloody Paniai case despite a lack of evidence of gross rights violations was meant to demonstrate its commitment to resolve past atrocities.

Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD has said President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo told him to "just bring the case to court even though it will lose." According to Mahfud, the President's instruction came before the court started in September 2022, in a meeting with Mahfud and Attorney General ST Burhanuddin to resolve the Bloody Paniai case. Mahfud said Burhanuddin had not been sure about the evidence and had been worried that the perpetrator would be acquitted by the court.

Activist Tioria Pretty Stephanie of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KontraS) said she doubted the AGO's seriousness about investigating the case from the get-go because a gross violation could not be committed only by one actor. She demanded the AGO reinvestigate and bring other possible perpetrators to justice.

"From the beginning we have been skeptical about it as we saw a series of weaknesses in the indictment," Tioria said. "Unfortunately, the AGO is still using the same weak arguments in their cassation appeal."

She was also critical of Mahfud's statement, saying that the AGO should have conducted a deeper investigation.