Jakarta – Amnesty International Indonesia Executive Director Usman Hamid has criticised the seven-month prison sentence handed down against Wawan Hermawan, the administrator of the @bekasi_menggugat account, for inciting the August 2025 protests.
Hamid said that Hermawan's actions in simply reposting content on social media should not be the basis for a legal problem.
"This verdict is misguided and violates human rights. The panel of judges in this case is sending the wrong message that Wawan's actions of simply reposting an invitation to a demonstration are criminal. The verdict should correct the legal process, which was flawed from the start", said Hamid in a press release on Amnesty Indonesia's official website on Wednesday April 8.
Hamid also regretted that the panel of judges did not use the Central Jakarta District Court's March 6 acquittal of activists Delpedro Marhaen, Muzaffar Salim, Syahdan Husein and Khariq Anhar as a benchmark. According to Hamid, the charges against Hermawan are much weaker.
"The [previous] verdict confirmed that no incitement occurred. There is no causal relationship between the invitations on social media and the violence that occurred during the August 2025 demonstration", he said.
Hamid also highlighted that the articles the prosecutors used to charge Marhaen, Salim, Husein and Anhar were the same as those used against Hermawan. However, the judges' verdicts were in fact different.
"The panel of judges on March 6 acquitted Delpedro, Khariq, Syahdan and Muzaffar of the two-year prison sentence demanded by the prosecutor, who demanded that they be found guilty of the crime of incitement under Article 246 of the new KUHP [Criminal Code] related to the August 2025 mass actions", said Hamid.
"This is the exact same article the prosecutor charged Wawan with at the indictment hearing. Wawan's guilty verdict ultimately raises a major question: why did the same charges result in such totally different verdicts?", continued Hamid.
This, said Hamid, demonstrates the court's inconsistency in addressing citizens' constitutional rights.
"The failure of the court to apply the same standard proves that judicial institutions are inconsistent in handling citizens exercising their constitutional rights", he said.
Hamid also defended Wawan, arguing that the content at issue was merely a manifestation of public anger stemming from the death of online motorcycle taxi driver Affan Kurniawan, who was run over and killed by a police tactical vehicle during the August 2025 demonstrations.
"The riots were sparked by public anger over various pro-elite policies which were then fuelled by Affan Kurniawan's death. Those responsible for the violence are the immediate perpetrators, not those who expressed opinions regarding the August 2025 demonstrations", he said.
On Tuesday April 7 the panel of judges at the Central Jakarta District Court sentenced Hermawan to seven months in prison.
"Declaring that the defendant Wawan Hermawan as cited above has been legally and convincingly proven guilty of committing a crime", said presiding judge Adek Nurhadi in reading out the verdict. "Therefore, the defendant is sentenced to seven months in prison", Nurhadi continued.
Previously, the public prosecutor (JPU) had demanded a one-year prison sentence for Hermawan minus the time that he had been detained, with an order that the defendant remain in detention.
Hermawan was declared to have been proven legally and convincingly guilty of committing a crime in public verbally or in writing, of inciting people to commit a crime or inciting people to resist public authority with violence, as stipulated under Article 246 of Law Number 1/2023 on the Criminal Code.
In the indictment, Hermawan was accused of deliberately altering the narrative of online news outlets to provoke the masses during the momentum of the wave of demonstrations in August 2025.
Hermawan allegedly uploaded content titled "[Labour Party Chairperson] Said Iqbal has Emphasised that Anarchists, High School Students and Student Executive Councils (BEM) Immediately Join the August 28 Action: This is a Purely an Indonesian People's Movement".
The content of this post was deemed to differ from the original narrative published by Redaksikota.com on August 26, 2025, which actually contained an appeal for these groups not to join the labour protests taking place in Jakarta at the time.
The prosecutor stated in the indictment that Hermawan's post provoked anarchists groups, high school students and BEMs leading to riots that damaged public facilities. (fam/isn)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Amnesty Internasional Kritik Vonis 7 Bulan Admin @bekasi_menggugat".]
