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kingwilly

June 02, 2009

Jakarta Globe

Dessy Sagita
16,000 Join Web Fight for Jailed Mother

More than 16,000 people have joined an online support group on Facebook for a mother currently in prison for a “defamatory” e-mail she sent out about the standard of care in an exclusive Tangerang hospital.

The plight of 32-year-old Prita Mulyasari, who has two children, has also caught the attention of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) and nongovermental organizations like the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) and the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI).

In a statement released on Monday, the PBHI demanded that the Tangerang District Court, which ruled against Prita in a civil case last month and ordered she be taken into custody pending a criminal hearing this week, reverse its decision and free her.

It also demanded that the House of Representatives and the Constitutional Court revise the Criminal Code’s defamation section because it was frequently used to restrict free speech.

“Prita was shocked because she never thought this case would have the ramifications it did, believing that she was just sharing her thoughts with her friends,” her sister Carolina Siswo Pratiwi told the Jakarta Globe on Tuesday.

Prita was taken into custody on May 13 after losing a civil case brought by the Omni International Hospital in Banten. She could face a six-year prison sentence and a Rp 1 billion ($98,000) fine if found guilty in a criminal trial.

The case began in August 2008 when Prita wrote an e-mail detailing her experience as a patient at Omni to 10 friends. The note quickly spread before the hospital found out about it.

Prita wrote that Omni staff first diagnosed her with dengue fever, but later said that she had a virus and gave her an injection.
She said her condition then worsened and she began to feel numbness. She decided to switch hospitals and asked Omni to provide her with the original diagnosis. The hospital, however, refused, saying that it was not part of her official medical history.

Prita alleged “fraud” on the part of the hospital because of the withheld diagnosis.

Andri Nugraha, Prita’s husband, said that she sometimes lapsed into depression because of her confinement in Tangerang Prison and her separation from her two young children.

“I can’t thank you and everyone else enough, especially the nongovernmental organizations for giving their support,” he said, adding that his family had met with Komnas HAM ahead of Prita’s scheduled appearance in court on Thursday.

Komnas HAM commissioner Nurkholis said that Prita’s case could set a terrible legal precedent and endanger free speech.

“First things first: we need to get her out of jail because her children need her,” he said after visiting Prita at the prison.

Nurkholis said Omni should have limited its legal action to civil court. “We can’t really interfere with the civil case, but taking it into criminal territory is exaggerating matters,” he said.

Omni’s lawyer, Heribertus Hartojo, alleged that Prita’s e-mail had caused the firm substantial financial losses from patient boycotts and frozen business deals.

Heribertus said that Omni had tried to settle the case out of court by asking Prita to publicly apologize and drop her demand for the original diagnosis, but no agreement was reached.

“The family insisted on their stance [against apologizing] and was not cooperative,” he said.

Andri, however, denied this.

“We never wanted to do this the hard way and we never intended to report the case as malpractice,” he said. “We always hoped Omni would settle the case outside of court, but they don’t seem to be interested.”

Bung

Loss of face taken to the extreme?

TSR2

good old Asian Democracy or should that be "Demoncrazy"

Jesus Jones

Seems the internet is the next stage of tyranny. I women was recently jailed for defamation via the net. An old woman slagged an ex (model/porn/glamour) woman off who died recently. I forget her name but she married an old billionaire codger and inheritted his fortune. I think she O.D after putting on a ton of weight on.

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Jesus Jones

Just come to me. Anne Nicole.

Whiteshiva

I guess the hospital never thought of the damage they are doing to themselves - which in this case will without doubt have a far greater impact on their reputation than the poor woman's writing ever could.

So, just to state the obvious, regardless of whether the woman's complaints were justified or not, Omni hospital in Tangerang, indonesia is one to be avoided at all cost.

Interesting enough - a google search for "Omni hospital Tangerang" has numerous hits regarding this case on top of the list. I am sure that within this week, a search for "Omni hospital" in general will yield the same results.

Muppets!

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baldrick

efficiency will improve as incompetents are outed - teh intertubes are teh w0wz

kingwilly

Yup, I wont be going there now, I actually live not fair from there, play football sometimes at the German school which is next door, if I break anything, I'll be insisting on the longer driver to a better place...

exactly.

damn prosecutors should be thrown the case out though, I'm surprised (well not really) that the case was allowed to even happen!

kingwilly

and from Jakarta Post...

Ex-patient to stand trial, wins support from Net users

Multa Fidrus , The Jakarta Post , Tangerang | Wed, 06/03/2009 9:17 AM | Headlines
Prita Mulyasari, a housewife who has been detained for defamation allegations after complaining over the Internet about receiving allegedly substandard hospital treatment, will stand a criminal case trial at the Tangerang District Court on Thursday.
In a September 2008 civil lawsuit, the court ordered her to pay Rp 50 million (US$4,761) of the Rp 400 million compensation demanded by the hospital, as well as make a public apology in two printed media.
Prita has spent three weeks at Tangerang Women Penitentiary after being accused of defamation by Omni International Hospital in Serpong, Tangerang. She was separated from her two children, Khairan Ananta, 3, and Ranariya, 15 months old, and therefore unable to breast feed the latter.
Her story has created a buzz over the Internet with support pouring in through blogs and a Facebook cause titled Dukungan Bagi Ibu Prita Mulyasari, Penulis Surat Keluhan Melalui Internet yang Dipenjara (Support for Ibu Prita Mulyasari, Arrested Internet Complaint Author). About 14,000 people have joined the cause.
She also received support from the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM).
“I miss my children. I just want to see them. All I did was spill the beans to my friends in an email. I did not mean to defame the hospital at all,” said Prita, who lost five kilograms in detention.
Prita said her Aug. 27, 2008 email — titled Penipuan (Fraud by) Omni International Hospital Alam Sutera Tangerang — revealed her disappointment over the hospital's poor service, its management's arrogance and its doctors’ inability to diagnose her illness during her treatment at the hospital from Aug. 7 to 12.
“I sent an email to 10 friends, hoping they would not suffer the same mistreatment at the hospital,” she said. But her email was then forwarded to mailing lists and blogs.
Prita's husband, Andre Nugroho, said he had filed a request for Prita's release but to no avail.
Tangerang Prosecutor's Office's head of general crimes, Irfan Jaya, said prosecutors charged Prita for violating Articles 27 of the Electronic Information Transaction Law and Article 310 and 311 of the Criminal Code. The articles carry a maximum sentence of six years in jail.
The case began when Prita came to the hospital for a health check on Aug. 7. The doctors who examined her — Hengky Gosal and Grace Herza Yarlen Nela — diagnosed her with dengue fever and ordered her to be treated at the hospital.
Laboratory tests and medical records showed her thrombocyte count dropped to 27,000, far from the minimum thrombocyte count of 100,000 platelets per cubic millimeter of blood. Prita was advised to be hospitalized for treatment. The next day, medical records showed her thrombocyte count reached 181,000.
Baffled, Prita then asked for a copy of her initial medical records but the hospital management refused to give it to her. As her condition worsened during the treatment, she decided to move to another hospital where she was later diagnosed with mumps.
Omni hospital staff, Yanti, said on Tuesday the hospital management would hold a press conference soon to clarify the matter.



Ex-patient to stand trial, wins support from Net users | The Jakarta Post

kingwilly

from the readers comments on Jakarta Post

kangbayu (not verified) — Wed, 06/03/2009 - 10:15am
Currently the cause has around 26.000 supporters, that's about 21.000 increase in a day. You can also support the cause here: Causes on Facebook | DUKUNGAN BAGI IBU PRITA MULYASARI, PENULIS SURAT KELUHAN MELALUI INTERNET YANG DITAHAN
Maybe the hospital should also re-consider their statement on DetikNews that the management "Does not fear of boycott movement on Facebook".

Whiteshiva

A bit late for crisis management now....

Please do keep up to date with what happens, KW - this could be interesting.

kingwilly

its hit all the media outlets now, indo and english language. will keep updates...

hang on, just found this WTF ?

kingwilly

Prita should be released, expert says

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Wed, 06/03/2009 4:24 PM | National
State prosecutors should release Prita Mulyasari, a housewife who has been detained for allegedly defaming a hospital on the Internet, University of Indonesia criminologist Adrianus Meliala said Wednesday.

"Police, prosecutors and judges should take a sense of justice into consideration. Don't be too strict in implementing the law and ignore fairness," Adrianus told reporters after a seminar on online pornography at the University of Indonesia in Depok, West Java.

Adrianus believes that Prita had no malicious intention when she shared her complaint about the medical treatment she underwent at the Omni International Hospital, Tangerang.

"I don't understand the police. The Electronic Information and Transaction Law stipulates intent, does it not?" he said.

Adrianus added the email Prita wrote was spread over the Internet via a mailing list, not by herself.

"Prosecutors and judges should consider acquitting Prita of all charges. They have the authority to do that," Adrianus said.

Prita has been detained at Tangerang Women’s Penitentiary for three weeks for allegedly violating Article 27 of the Electronic Information and Transaction Law and Articles 310 and 311 of the Criminal Code on defamation. (bbs)

Butterfly

they aren't really smart, are they ?

Muadib

Found guilty in the civil case and held over for a criminal trial... WTF is right... It's insane that someone could be held accountable for making a negative comment on the quality of service provided by a hospital... What's next, thrown in jail for giving a restaurant a negative review on the Internet???

Sounds like big brother is alive and well...

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Butterfly

sounds like Indonesia has a justice system that is even more silly than Thailand,

and you think that wasn't possible,

kingwilly

sadly so.

i think I need to update the other thread about the anti-corruption chief's murder case

Butterfly

Indonesia seems to be far worse than Thailand in many respects, don't know why the local expat community here is always moaning and complaining, they would face a worse deal in most countries, including theirs

MustavaMond

Defamation being criminalized is the problem here.

Restrict it to a civil court and let the hospital sue her, then she can counter sue- yes, it's tedious , but works to keep spurious complaints to a minimal and people who don't belong in jail, out of jail.

kingwilly

Net users to monitor ex-patient libel trial

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Thu, 06/04/2009 8:35 AM | Jakarta
The trial of Prita Mulyasari, a housewife who was charged with defamation and detained for posting complaints on the Internet about receiving poor hospital treatment, will be closely watched by net users, a blogging activist says.

“We will monitor the trial. We have invited 60,000 bloggers to come to the court; but I don't how many will actually come,” Enda Nasution, a blogger who is unofficially dubbed the "father of Indonesian bloggers”, told tempointeraktif.com on Thursday.

Prita had been detained at Tangerang Women’s Penitentiary for three weeks after she was named a suspect for allegedly defaming Omni International Hospital, after she discussed her complaint about the hospital’s services on the Internet in 2008.

The Attorney General’s Office, apparently bowing to the mounting public outcry the case has raised, released her from prison and put her under city arrest on Wednesday.

She will face her first trial session today at the Tangerang District Court.

Support for her has been pouring in through blogs and a Facebook cause titled “Dukungan Bagi Ibu Prita Mulyasari, Penulis Surat Keluhan Melalui Internet yang Dipenjara” (“Support for Ibu Prita Mulyasari, Arrested Internet Complaint Author”). About 88,000 people had joined the cause by Thursday morning.

Prita, in her Aug. 27, 2008 email titled “Penipuan (Fraud by) Omni International Hospital Alam Sutera Tangerang”, revealed her disappointment over the hospital's poor service, its management's arrogance and its doctors’ inability to diagnose her illness during her treatment at the hospital from Aug. 7 to 12. (dre)