Court absolves woman who posted video of man saying he wants to decapitate President Jokowi

A screenshot of a video uploaded by Ina Yuniarti, in which treason suspect Hermawan Susanto says he wants to decapitate President Joko Widodo. Photo: Youtube screengrab
A screenshot of a video uploaded by Ina Yuniarti, in which treason suspect Hermawan Susanto says he wants to decapitate President Joko Widodo. Photo: Youtube screengrab

The Central Jakarta District Court yesterday absolved Ina Yuniarti, a woman who was accused of violating the Information and Electronic Transactions Act (UU ITE) for uploading a video containing an implied threat on President Joko Widodo’s life.

Back in May, Ina took part in a protest at the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) demanding that April’s presidential election result — which spelled victory for President Jokowi over his challenger Prabowo Subianto — be overturned due to supposed fraud.

During the protest, Ina filmed and posted a video of a male protester named Hermawan Susanto, who was recorded saying, “Jokowi, be ready to have your head decapitated” several times. She was also one of two women in the video who chimed in with chants of Inshallah (God willing) and Allahuakbar (God is great). 

Police arrested Hermawan and Ina soon after, with the former charged with treason and the latter charged with spreading threatening content online under UU ITE.

Yesterday, the Central Jakarta District Court ruled that was no sufficient evidence to prove that Ina was guilty and absolved her of all charges. 

Allahu Akbar (God is great), thank you to all,” Ina said tearily after the judges delivered their verdict, as quoted by state news agency Antara.

Previously, prosecutors demanded that she receive a three-and-a-half-year sentence for uploading the video.

Herman Susanto, who could face the death penalty or a maximum of 20 years in prison for threatening to kill the president, has yet to face trial. He has previously apologized and said that he made the threat in the heat of the moment, without any intention of ever carrying it out.



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