(Jakarta) – Indonesian authorities should drop the criminal defamation charges against two prominent human rights defenders in Jakarta, Human Rights Watch said today. On April 3, 2023, the East Jakarta district court began the trial of Haris Azhar and Fatia Maulidiyanti based on a complaint filed by Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, a coordinating minister in President Joko Widodo's cabinet, in August 2021. The complaint concerns the activists' discussion on YouTube about a report that alleged that the Indonesian government had conducted 'illegal military operations' in Papua's Central Highlands to access lucrative gold deposits.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/04/14/indonesia-activists-trial-criminal-defamation

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