Indonesia jails four military officers for acid attack on rights activist 

An Indonesian military court has sentenced four officers for their involvement in an acid attack on an activist known for campaigning against the growing role of the army.

One defendant was sentenced to three years in jail, a second to 2.5 years, the third to two years and the fourth to 1.5 years, the judge said on Wednesday.

The four officers – all members of the military’s Strategic Intelligence Agency (BAIS) – were found guilty on charges of serious premeditated assault after attacking Andrie Yunus, a ‌deputy coordinator with the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence, a rights group also known as KontraS.

The trial of the four accused officers began in April in Jakarta and drew national and international attention as experts described the soldiers’ alleged actions as part of a broader pattern of repression amid growing concerns over rising military influence and democratic backsliding in Indonesia.

Yunus, 27, was attacked on March 12 while he was riding a motorbike in the capital. Two men on another motorbike threw acid at him, leaving him blind in one eye and with burns on more than 20 percent of his face and body.

The charges against the soldiers for premeditated assault carried a maximum sentence of 12 years in prison.

Presiding judge Fredy Ferdian Isnartanto found that soldiers Edi Sudarko, 45, Budi Hariyanto Widhi Cahyono, 43, Nandala Dwi Prasetia, 40, and Sami Lakka, 41, engaged in “arrogant conduct”.

Following outrage over the attack, the military agency’s chief stepped down, but no reason was made public.

Prosecutors argued in court that the accused soldiers were motivated by anger over Yunus’s activism but said they were not acting under official orders.

The United Nations has condemned the attack, with High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk calling it a “cowardly act of violence” and Special Rapporteur Mary Lawlor describing it as “horrific”.

Yunus had been a vocal critic of President Prabowo Subianto’s government and its efforts to expand the military’s role in civilian governance in Indonesia, including an amendment passed last year that allows active-duty military personnel to hold a wider range of government positions.

Yunus had asked for the trial to be held in a civilian court, not a military one, for fear of a cover-up in a country where attacks on activists are rarely punished. He refused to attend any of the trial hearings, citing health reasons and distrust in the court.