District Prosecutor demands a public apology from lawyer who criticised his Office on social media

On 23 August 2022 the Head of Ternate District Prosecutor’s Office (Kajari), Abdullah Fatah, demanded that Maharani Carolina, a female lawyer in Ternate, apologise publicly for her posts on her Facebook account, Namaku Ranigila (my name is crazy Rany). The posts criticised the handling of the drug case involving Stephanus Peter Imanuel (Steven) by the Ternate District Prosecutor’s office and the North Maluku High Prosecutor.

The offender Steven works as a Prosecutor at the North Maluku High Prosecutor. He was arrested by North Maluku Regional Police members on 3 February 2021, at his home in Kampung Stadium, Central Ternate Regency. Steven was found to have class I narcotics weighing 1 kilogram. Based on the Supreme Court Decision Number 2212 K/Pid.Sus/2022, dated June 28, 2022, Steven was charged with Article 114 Paragraph (2) of Law No. 35 of 2009 and Article 112 Paragraph (1) of Law No. 35 of 2009 concerning Narcotics. Steven was sentenced to 1,5 years and a fine of 3-billion-rupiah, subsidiary to 4 months in prison. Steven was not held in a prison cell during the trial but was at that time a city prisoner. When he was about to be executed, he fled.


Through her Facebook account Namaku Ranigila, Maharani posted her opinion regarding the performance of the Ternate District Prosecutor’s Office and the North Maluku High Prosecutor in handling Steven’s case.

“Friends of the media, please help; the North Maluku High Prosecutor’s Office and the Ternate District Prosecutor’s Office are urged to resign because they are incompetent to handle Steven, the Drug Prosecutor.”

Maharani also posted on 22 August 2022:

“The biggest mistake of the Prosecutor’s Office (and the court) in the case of Prosecutor Steven, the drug user and seller, which was the prosecutor’s confiscated powder of approximately 3 kg, was treating Steven in a special way, different from other suspects/defendants, namely not making arrests. These two institutions can be considered compromised by criminals. It completely strips the dignity of the prosecutor’s office, which is aggressively eradicating corruption which is said to be for law enforcement. Injustice has been shown openly. It is called rising too quickly and falling in the shortest possible time. Steven…oh…Steven. It’s just a shame.”


The Head of the Prosecutor’s Office felt that Rani’s post had discredited the Office’s name, gave a bad image to the performance of the prosecutor’s office, and seemed to influence the public to vilify the name of the state prosecutor’s institution. Mr Abdullah Fatah asked Maharani to apologise publicly within 24 hours. Otherwise, he will take legal action on behalf of the Ternate State Prosecutor’s Office and the Ternate High Prosecutor’s Office. He tried to explain Steven’s case and that Steven was a city prisoner during the trial. According to him, the convict Steven left the City of Ternate two days before the Prosecutor’s Office received the decision of the Cassation from the Supreme Court, so the Prosecutor’s Office did not yet have the authority to carry out executions. Through his lawyer, Steven sent an address to the Prosecutor’s Office that he was sick in Jakarta and tested positive for Covid. After being investigated by the prosecutor, it turned out to be fake.

Maharani insists what she wrote is a fact. Steven’s case at the North Maluku High Prosecutor’s Office experienced from the beginning problems in the trial process at the District Court because he was not present several times, so the trial was postponed. Even so, the city’s prisoner status was not revoked. According to Maharani, when something like that happens, the institution (the Prosecutor’s Office) should urge the court to revoke the status of a city detainee because the convict is not cooperative.


Detailed Case Data
name of the location: Kejari Ternate Office (0.794849186470043, 127.3780887460883)
administrative region: Indonesia, North Maluku Province, Ternate City
total number of victims: one
period of incident: 23.08.2022
perpetrator: judiciary
perpetrator details: Head of the Ternate Prosucutor’s Office
Issues: freedom of expression
Sources: https://ambon.antaranews.com/berita/132669/kejari-ternate-somasi-seorang-pengacara-karena-status-facebook, https://poskomalut.com/kajari-bakal-somasi-oknum-pengacara-di-ternate/ Further HRM News:

NumberName, DetailsGenderAgeGroup AffiliationViolation
1Maharani Carolina, lawyerfemaleunknownactivistfreedom of expression