Refly Harun: Never Mind 2 Years, 1 Day Rizieq Shihab's Sentence Is Not Worth It!

Rizieq Shihab (DOK. VOI/Irfan Meidianto)

JAKARTA - Constitutional Law expert Refly Harun welcomed the decision of the Supreme Court (MA) judge who cut Rizieq Shihab's sentence to 2 years. For Refly, the judges who decided this case have shown courage.

However, despite the reduced sentence of the former high priest of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), Refly assessed that Rizieq Shihab did not deserve to be imprisoned.

This refers to the articles imposed on Rizieq Shihab, namely Article 14 paragraph 1 and paragraph 2 of Law 4/1984 concerning Disease Outbreaks, Article 14 and/or Article 15 of Law 1/1964 concerning Criminal Law Regulations, and Article 216 of the Criminal Code.

According to Refly, it is strange because the law creates uncertainty. For example, if someone spreads news that is incomplete and should be suspected of causing trouble, they can be sentenced to two years.

Whereas theoretically people do not necessarily bring up or tell the complete thing because of the limited duration. As an illustration, in making news of President Joko Widodo's speech, the media only took important things in the speech.

It is impossible, for example, the duration of Jokowi's one-hour speech is made in its entirety.

"Suddenly the news from Jokowi's speech was excited and caused chaos on social media. That person could be imprisoned," explained Refly.

It is the same with the case of Rizieq Shihab in the spread of fake news at the Ummi Hospital, Bogor. What Rizieq said did not harm anyone at all.

"I said I was healthy even though I coughed a little it doesn't matter. Even if I say it on social media and it is watched by thousands of people, it doesn't matter. Because actually being sick or not is a subjective right. And it doesn't harm anyone at all,"

"So I said, let alone two years, just one day of processing is not feasible," said Refly.