A high school teacher from Mataram on the island of Lombok, Indonesia, Baiq Nuril Maknun has been jailed for spreading a recording revealing alleged sexual harassment by her former superior.
Nuril guilty of defaming Muslim, the former principal at the school, by spreading a recording of a reportedly sordid phone call between the two of them, overturning a lower court's not guilty verdict.
She says she had been verbally sexually harassed with indecent conversation from her school’s principal several times before she decided to record him doing so during a phone conversation back in 2012.
When the recording was made public, the principal lost his post. But in retaliation, he filed a criminal report over the recording that Nuril may now have to spend six months in jail just for making it.
In a controversial verdict, the court ruled on Friday (Nov 16) that Nuril must serve a six-month sentence and pay a Rp 500 million (US$33,749) fine after being found guilty of violating Article 27 of the Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law.
Separately, a crowdfunding campaign initiated by the Victims of UU ITE Community (PAKU ITE) began on Tuesday to raise money to help Nuril pay the fines.
Muhammad Arsyad, the head of PAKU ITE, said help began flooding in from across and outside the country only a day after the campaign commenced.
Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SAFEnet) said on its official Twitter account @safenetvoice on Tuesday that H. Muslim, the former headmaster, had contacted Baiq by phone several times.
In their conversations, Muslim allegedly shared vulgar and lewd stories about his sexual affair with his treasurer and asked Baiq to stay in a hotel with him on several occasions.
“Have you ever received a phone call from your colleague, but the conversation turned into a lewd conversation that [was a form of] sexual harassment against you and made you feel uncomfortable? That’s what happened to Nuril,” @safenetvoice tweeted.
Baiq, afraid she would be fired if she filed a report, initially kept mum, but when Muslim called her again, she decided to record the conversation. Her colleague, Imam Mudawin, asked about the recording and reported it to the Mataram Education Agency.
Muslim was removed from the school after the incident, while Nuril was reported for spreading the recording, something that she said she never did.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International Indonesia executive director Usman Hamid said the court’s ruling was absurd since Nuril was only documenting the abuse she received from her employer.
“Unsolicited, sexually explicit and abusive telephone calls would constitute sexual harassment and should be investigated as a priority, with charges brought accordingly. It is a travesty that, while the victim of the alleged abuse has been convicted for recording this call, little if any action has been taken by the authorities to investigate what appear to be credible claims,” he said on Thursday.
Usman said the verdict was yet another example of how the Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law had been used to repress people.
Sources: Kompas.com, The Jakarta Post, The Guardian, Independent.co.uk