Prabowo-Sandi’s BPN attorney Bambang Widjojanto hading over witness summon and protection letter to courtroom staff of the Constitutional Court, Tuesday (18/6) in the Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—Bambang Widjojanto, attorney of the National Victory Agency (BPN) of Presidential and Vice Presidential Candidate Pair Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno (Prabowo-Sandi) revealed that several witnesses felt threatened. Attorney of the Presidential and Vice Presidential Candidate Pair Joko Widodo-Ma’ruf Amin’s (Jokowi-Ma’ruf) National Campaign Team’s (TKN) Yusril Ihza Mahendra said to the press after the hearing that heard the response by the KPU (Respondent), Jokowi-Ma’ruf (Relevant Party), and Bawaslu on Tuesday (18/6/2019) at the Constitutional Court, “Presenting witnesses at a hearing is an ordinary activity. We have been litigating at the Constitutional Court for a long time [and] never had any issue in presenting witnesses during presidential or legislative election [dispute cases].”

According to Yusril, what Bambang Widjojanto did was unusual. “Even the witnesses have not been named. The witness [list] will only be submitted to the Court tomorrow morning, but they have already been threatened? Who will be witnesses? Nobody knows. But [they] are already threatened. Who threatened [them], where, and how? We think [they] read too much into it,” he stressed.

In the second hearing of the 2019 presidential election result dispute on Tuesday (18/6/2019), Bambang Widjojanto mentioned before the panel of justices of threat to several witnesses that the Prabowo Sandi’s BPN legal team was going to present in the following session on Wednesday (19/6/2019).

“We are not dramatizing threats to the witnesses. It is not drama. It is real. Do not play with people’s lives,” Bambang affirmed before the Court presided over by Chief Justice Anwar Usman.

In the hearing, the Constitutional Court rejected BPN’s request for witness protection from the Witness and Victim Protection Agency (LPSK). “There is no legal basis [for it],” said Constitutional Justice Suhartoyo.

Justice Suhartoyo reasoned that LPSK provides protection in criminal cases, while the petitions lodged in the Constitutional Court are related to dispute over interest. “The LPSK Law is related to criminal acts,” said Justice Suhartoyo, who referred to the constitutional spirit that all citizens have the right to legal protection. However, the Court guaranteed that witnesses will be protected during the hearings. (Nano Tresna Arfana/NRA/Yuniar Widiastuti)