JABAR EKSPRES – Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan has requested that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Indonesia be audited.
“Yes, I will ask that NGOs be audited in the future,” Luhut said after attending a hearing as a witness at the East Jakarta District Court (PN), Thursday (6/8).
Luhut was a witness in the alleged defamation case against Haris Azhar and Fatia Maulidiyanti.
The audit for NGOs in Indonesia is to find out the flow of funds that NGOs get from were. “Moreover, many NGOs use funds for things that are not clear,” Luhut said.
In his testimony, Luhut denied having any involvement or business interests in Papua. Luhut prosecuted Haris and Fatia because he felt aggrieved.
According to him, one of the ambassadors from another country came to him regarding his defamation case.
“There is one country’s ambassador who came to me, why is this happening? Yes, I explained that all the allegations were not true. I told him there is no absolute freedom,” Luhut said.
Lokataru Director Haris Azhar and KontraS Coordinator Fatia Maulidiyanti were charged with defaming Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan by prosecutors.
The charges were read out by prosecutors in a trial held at the East Jakarta District Court on Monday (3/4).
Prosecutors said Haris and Fatia’s statement in a video uploaded through Haris’ YouTube account had defamed Luhut.
The video was titled “There is lord Luhut behind Intan Jaya’s military-economic-ops relationship!!!”. What is discussed in the video is a quick study by the Clean Indonesia Coalition entitled ‘The Political Economy of Military Deployment in Papua: The Intan Jaya Case’.
Haris and Fatia were charged with Article 27 paragraph 3 in conjunction with Article 45 paragraph 3 of the ITE Law, Article 14 paragraph 2 of Law Number 1 of 1946, Article 15 of Law Number 1 of 1946, and Article 310 of the Criminal Code on Defamation.
