President Jokowi Signs Saiful Mahdi's Presidential Decree On Amnesty

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo has signed a presidential decree (keppres) granting amnesty to lecturers at Syiah Kuala Saiful Mahdi University.

"Today, the President signed a presidential decree for Saiful Mahdi's amnesty," said Minister of State Secretary Pratikno, quoted by Antara, Tuesday, October 12.

Earlier on Thursday, October 7, in the plenary session closing the session, the DPR had approved granting amnesty to Saiful Mahdi.

Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Muhaimin Iskandar, as chairman of the session at the time, said that the leadership of the House of Representatives had received a Presidential Letter dated September 29, 2021 regarding the consideration of Saiful Mahdi's amnesty request.

"Yes, yesterday we received a letter from the DPR, that the DPR has approved an amnesty for Saiful Mahdi, so the President has proposed it to the DPR some time ago and then has received the DPR's approval," said Pratikno.

Pratikno said after the presidential decree was signed, the government would immediately send it to Saiful Mahdi.

"The amnesty of brother Saiful Mahdi is to the Supreme Court, to the Attorney General and then to the person concerned for further follow-up. So hopefully this can be followed up quickly and brother Saiful Mahdi can be released as soon as possible," said Pratikno.

Saiful Mahdi was reported to the police on February 25, 2019 after criticizing the process of accepting prospective civil servants (CPNS) at the Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Unsyiah Kuala, Banca Aceh.

Saiful criticized the recruitment process because he was aware of the participant's file which was allegedly not in accordance with the requirements, but was still passed by the campus. The criticism was conveyed through the "WhatsApp" group.

Then in July 2019, Saiful was reported to the Banda Aceh Police by the campus. Saiful then became a suspect in defamation under Article 27 paragraph 3 of the Electronic Information and Transactions Law (ITE) on September 2, 2019.

In the ongoing legal process, the Banda Aceh District Court on April 4, 2020 sentenced Saiful to 3 months in prison and a fine of Rp. 10 million, subsidiary to one month in prison.

Saiful had filed an appeal and cassation, but it was rejected. The Banda Aceh District Attorney also executed the verdict against Saiful on September 2, 2021.