Haris Azhar Denies Being Paid by Luhut for Harvard Study, Currently Facing Defamation Trial

CNN Indonesia

Thursday, 08 Jun 2023 18:41 WIB

Jakarta, CNNIndonesia —

Human rights activist Haris Azhar denied the claims of the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan who assisted the doctoral school at Harvard University. Haris admitted that during his college years he only received a scholarship once and paid for the rest independently.

“Regarding my school, I went to 4 universities. Take law, sociology, philosophy, sociology and human rights. Three self-paid and 1 scholarship. So I never went to Harvard and was paid for by witnesses,” said Haris at the East Jakarta District Court, Thursday (8/6 ).

Previously, during the witness examination trial, Luhut said he had communicated with Haris about continuing his college studies. He claimed Haris had asked for his help to continue his doctoral or doctoral studies.

“He asked for help going to school, at that time I pushed him to Harvard to take his doctorate. He said please Mr. Luhut if you can help me,” said Luhut.

Haris Azhar and Fatia Maulidiyanti are currently facing legal proceedings for alleged defamation of Luhut.

In his indictment, the prosecutor assessed that Haris and Fatia’s statements in a video uploaded via Haris’ YouTube account had defamed Luhut’s good name.

The video is titled ‘There is Lord Luhut behind Intan Jaya’s economic-military ops relationship!! General BIN is also there! The video discusses the results of a quick study by the Clean Indonesia Coalition entitled ‘Economics and Politics of Military Deployment in Papua: The Case of Intan Jaya’.

In this case, Haris and Fatia were charged with Article 27 paragraph 3 in conjunction with Article 45 paragraph 3 of the ITE Law, Article 14 paragraph 2 of Law Number 1 of 1946, Article 15 of Law Number 1 of 1946, and Article 310 of the Criminal Code Concerning Humiliation.

(mab/DAL)