Hoax News Kemenkumham Remove Criminal Sanctions After Megawati's Subordinate Refuse Vaccines

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JAKARTA - A Facebook account with the name Muhammad Saisal on January 19 uploaded a picture that narrated the criminal sanctions for vaccine rejecters had been removed by the Ministry of Law and Human Rights (Kemenkumham) after PDIP cadre Ribka Tjiptaning refused the COVID-19 vaccine.

"Coward.!!! The country lost to a grandmother who felt proud as a pekaih child," wrote Muhammad Saisal in the upload.

However, this is a fake news or hoax. Quoted from the official website of the COVID-19 Handling Task Force, based on searches conducted through a number of online news portals, the Minister of Law and Human Rights Yasonna Laoly has denied any information on the provision of criminal sanctions for people who refuse vaccines.

"For those who do not participate in the COVID-19 vaccine, they will still be given sanctions in the form of administrative sanctions in order to encourage people to join together in the vaccination program to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic," wrote the statement of the COVID-19 Handling Task Force, quoted by VOI on Wednesday, January 27th.

The Deputy Governor of DKI Jakarta, Ahmad Riza Patria, explained that administrative sanctions were given to people who met the vaccination criteria but refused. This rule is also contained in Regional Regulation Number 2 of 2020 concerning Handling COVID-19.

Based on Article 30 of Regional Regulation (Perda) No.2 of 2020, those who reject the COVID-19 vaccine will be fined IDR 50 million. However, exceptions were given to people who did not meet the criteria for recipients.

"Thus, the claim that the Ministry of Law and Human Rights removed criminal sanctions after Megawati's subordinate refused the vaccine is untrue. This information has been denied by the Minister of Law and Human Rights and the sanction given is in the form of administrative sanctions, so it falls into the misleading content category."