Jakarta: One of Indonesia's most prominent human rights activists has cancelled a trip to Australia because he has to fight a criminal defamation suit after he alleged the military and police were involved in a drug smuggling syndicate.
Just hours before the execution of Freddy Budiman last month, Haris Azhar posted allegations on Facebook that the notorious drug baron had told him he had paid millions of dollars in bribes to top-ranking officials to run his ecstasy smuggling racket from behind bars.
The National Narcotics Agency (BNN), military and police filed a criminal defamation suit against Mr Haris last week and he is considering asking for witness protection after receiving anonymous threats.
Mr Haris, the co-ordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), had been invited to Australia by the Perth-based Indonesia Institute next month to deliver public lectures and closed-door briefings on his human rights activities.
However, he cancelled on Sunday night, telling the Indonesia Institute the situation had become too serious for him to travel.
"If I go to Australia and the police or BNN summon me, they might think I ran away. I don't want to give that impression," Mr Haris told Fairfax Media.
He said he did not regret going public with the information, despite the repercussions.
Mr Haris posted online the contents of a conversation he had with Budiman when he visited him in prison on the penal island of Nusakambangan in 2014.
Budiman told him he didn't mind paying bribes to officials because the profit margin he made importing ecstasy pills from China was so great.
He allegedly boasted he had paid a total of 540 billion rupiah ($54 million) to high-ranking officials from the military, BNN and police over the years.
Budiman also alleged a BNN official had asked the prison head of Nusakambangan to remove the surveillance cameras from his cell.
Mr Haris told Fairfax Media Budiman did not name names, but did indicate the positions of those involved in the racket.
Budiman and three Nigerians were executed in the early hours of July 29, as part of Indonesia's "war" on the scourge of drugs. Ten others were given an 11th-hour reprieve but their fate remains uncertain, with Attorney-General Muhammad Prasetyo flagging that executions will still proceed.
National police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar said it was disappointing that Mr Haris had chosen to post Budiman's claims publicly rather than report them to law enforcement agencies.
"Why couldn't I make it public?" Mr Haris asked. "Is it sinful? Now we see that the state institutions have acted oddly. Instead of following it up, they have reported me for defamation."
BNN spokesman Slamet Pribadi said the National Narcotics Agency had questioned former Nusakambangan head Liberty Sitinjak on Monday about the allegations that he had been pressured to remove the surveillance cameras.
He said Mr Haris would be summoned for questioning this week.
In February, then chief security minister Luhut Panjaitan ordered tighter security for drug dealers and terrorists on Nusakambangan – with more officers guarding high-risk prisons – after he led a delegation to the island.
A source told Fairfax Media that security X-rays at five of the prisons visited by the delegation were not working.
