A long and winding road for two military victims in Indonesia seeking justice

On May 24, 2024, after taking money from an ATM at Mandala public residence in Deli Serdang, North Sumatra, Mikael Sitanggang was curious about a riot that happened nearby. He joined his friends sitting near a railroad to see the riot from a distance.

Would you like us to summarize articles for you?

The riot was monitored by dozens of military members. When the riot erupted into chaos, he ran following the crowd and one of the soldiers hit him in the back of his neck, causing him to fall down under the railway near a river. He died the next day after his neighbours tried to save him.

Lenny Damanik, Mikael’s mother and a corn seller in Deli Serdang, was very shocked when she was informed by her neighbour about the death of her son.

‘My heart was broken the day my neighbour told me my son had died,’ Lenny told FairPlanet when met in a coffee shop in Medan city on June 6th, 2026. She was in her hometown attending her father’s funeral in Simalungun, about a five hour trip from Medan city, the capital of North Sumatra province.

On June 21st, 2024 she reported her case to Legal Aid of Medan (LBH Medan) and since then the legal aid assists her as an attorney.

The murder case was tried in military court in Medan until in January 2026 the defendant—Riza Pahlivi—member of the Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI) who killed her son was sentenced to ten months in prison and not to be discharged from his military service.

Leny said that the verdict of a military trial held in Medan in January 2026 has not found justice for her.

‘I am really disappointed with the verdict,’ she told FairPlanet.

According to her attorney the punishment does not deliver justice for the victims. ‘As the punishment is lower than a chicken thief. It is clearly against human rights,’ Irvan Saputra, the attorney from LBH Medan, told FairPlanet who met him in Medan on June 6th, 2026.

Irvan said, it is also injustice as the verdict was not communicated to her until April. The late notification caused Lenny’s rights to submit an appeal to the Supreme Court.

‘According to the law, the appeal is allowed to be submitted 14 days after the verdict. As it should be the right for the victim to be informed. The military trial indicates the injustice for the victim,’ Irvan said.

What makes her more sad is when she feels there is an impunity in the military court that she has followed. ‘As long as I attend the trial, I see the judges look like pro to the perpetrators, not for us as victims,’ she said.

‘My father and my family were murdered’

Eva Pasaribu lost her father, her only son, mother and brother late at night on June 27, 2024. Her family were murdered that night by arson in her father’s wooden house in Kabanjahe, Karo district, North Sumatra.

Days before the arson, her father—Rico Pasaribu—who worked as a journalist for an online outlet, reported on an illegal gambling location that was suspected as owned and operated by a military member.

Rico reported a gambling activity that was operated by a TNI member, whose initials are HB — identified to FairPlanet as Herman Bukit, though not named in full in keeping with Indonesian media convention, as he has not been charged and is presumed innocent under the law. When it was published, a man asked Rico to take down the news. However his editor didn’t do it.

Eva was sleeping when the arson happened. Around six in the morning, her neighbour knocked on her home and told her about the arson. She was very shocked when she found out that her family was killed.

‘My father and whole family was murdered and now I live alone struggling for justice,’ she said crying while expressing her testimony at the judicial review hearing last January.

Two of the three men convicted of her father’s murder were sentenced to life in prison and another one for twenty years. However, a military member who was suspected as the mastermind of the murder was never brought to trial. He only attended a trial as a witness in the case.

She also questions why there is such an impunity to the military member even though she and her legal aid have reported the case to the military office in Medan.

‘If the perpetrator is part of a military institution, accountability is likely shielded from public scrutiny. It is different if the perpetrator was a civilian. The military institution is potentially not accountable and bears impunity,’ Eva added.

Judicial review of Military Judiciary: The struggle for justice

On 15 December 2025, Lenny Damanik and Eva Pasaribu filed a petition at Indonesia's Constitutional Court challenging the 1997 law that requires soldiers accused of crimes against civilians to be tried in military — rather than civilian — courts.

In their statement LBH Medan, Kontras, Imparsial and Themis Indonesia Law Firm acting as the attorney, mentioned that it is illegal if the accused member of TNI tried in civil trial as stated in chapter 65 verse 2 of Military Law.

The joint attorney team told FairPlanet in Medan city last June, that it is injustice when accused TNI members are tried by judges, prosecuted by prosecutor, and defended by legal counsel, all of whom are TNI members.

Therefore, legally, there is a clear lack of objective justice in military courts. Military courts are suspected of perpetuating impunity.

‘Military trials, in fact, do not guarantee justice for victims who are civilians,’ Irvan Saputra said.

The attorney from LBH Medan told FairPlanet in June 2025, that the prosecution and the verdict in Military Court of Medan in the trial case of Eva Pasaribu and Lenny Damanik constitute a betrayal of justice and very detrimental to the victim's family.

Prof Dr Zainal Arifin Mochtar, one of the law experts acting as witness in the judicial review trial on April 14, testified that active-duty soldiers who commit ordinary crimes being tried in military courts violates the constitutional principle of equality before the law.

‘It does not strictly differentiate military crimes and civilian crimes. It does not give equality before the law for victims from civilians as in the case which involves civilian victims, the military trial process bears doubt to the independence and impartiality,’ Zainal said in a written statement sent by LBH Medan to FairPlanet.

For Lenny Damanik, submission of judicial review of the military law is one of her struggles to find justice for her as the victim's family.

For civilians like her, justice in the military law cannot be found but rather impunity and injustice. ‘My son has died but Riza Pahlivi was only sentenced to ten months in prison. It makes me disappointed and sad,’ she said.