This archive report was first published on 10 July 2019.
On July 8, 2019, Indonesian President Joko Widodo was asked to consider granting amnesty to Baiq Nuril Maknun, a 41-year-old woman who was sentenced to six months in prison for reporting her employer's sexual harassment.
Maknun, a former teacher from the island of Lombok, was found guilty of breaking a communications law after she recorded lewd phone calls from the principal of the school where she worked and reported them to a colleague.
She had complained of getting lewd phone calls from the principal from 2012, and secretly recorded some of the calls, which she gave to a colleague. However, this action led to her being accused of spreading pornography under a communications law.
Indonesia's Supreme Court overturned a lower court's decision to acquit her, imposed the jail term, and also ordered her to pay a Kshs 3.7M ($35,474) fine.
Minister of Law and Human Rights Yasonna Laoly said that if Maknun was not granted amnesty, there were tens of thousands of women who would not be brave enough to report sexual assault or harassment.
Widodo has indicated that he would pardon Maknun if she applied for amnesty, but has also asked the public to honour the Supreme Court's decision.
