International Joint Statement

Investigate and Fully Prosecute the Perpetrators of the Acid Attack Against Andrie Yunus!

Jakarta, 13 March 2026

We, the civil society across the globe, strongly condemn and denounces the acid attack against the Deputy Coordinator of the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS), Andrie Yunus, which took place early Friday morning, 13 March 2026, in the Salemba area of Central Jakarta, Indonesia.

The brutal attack caused Andrie Yunus to suffer severe burns to approximately 24 percent of his body, including his face, eyes, chest, and both hands. The attack was carried out by two perpetrators who deliberately approached the victim on a motorcycle and threw a dangerous chemical liquid directly at Andrie before fleeing. The incident occurred shortly after Andrie Yunus completed public advocacy activities, including recording a podcast on remilitarization and the judicial review of the Indonesian Military Law at the office of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI).

This attack strongly indicated a planned and coordinated  act. The way the perpetrators deliberately poured a hazardous chemical directly into vital parts of the victim’s body, including the face and respiratory tract, indicates that this was not merely an ordinary act of violence, but rather one that can  have been intended to take the victim’s life. Therefore, we believe this incident must be treated as a suspected attempted, premeditated murder and must be investigated seriously, thoroughly, and transparently by law enforcement authorities.

This attack cannot be separated from the context of the victim’s work as a human rights defender who has consistently exposed abuses of power, human rights violations, and the shrinking civic space in Indonesia. In the days leading up to the incident, the victim had also received various forms of intimidation, including suspicious calls from unknown numbers. These patterns of intimidation indicate systematic efforts to spread fear among those actively engaged in advocacy and the defense of human rights.

Furthermore, Andrie Yunus is one of the members of the Fact-Finding Commission (KPF) who, over the past five months, has conducted an independent investigation into the Indonesian Nationwide protest and unrest which occurred in August 2025. 

Through extensive investigations, the KPF report revealed serious findings, including the disproportionate use of force by security forces, mass arrests, alleged torture, and the large-scale criminalization of activists and civilians. The events of August 2025 brought about 13 deaths and criminalization of hundreds of civilians, marking one of the largest waves of repression against civil society movements since the Indonesian Reformation in 1998.

Andrie Yunus has protested the considered non-transparent process of discussing revisions to the Indonesian Military Law. On 15 March 2025, together with other members of the civil society coalition, he forced his way into the parliamentary meeting at the Fairmont Hotel Jakarta to interrupt the  closed-door discussion of the TNI Bill between the government and the House of Representatives of the Republic of Indonesia. This action was carried out as a protest against the closed nature of the deliberation process, which excluded public participation and risked reviving the military’s dual-function doctrine of the Pre-1998 Reformation.

In this context, the brutal attack against Andrie Yunus cannot be viewed as an ordinary criminal act. The Civil Society Coalition considers the acid attack on Andrie Yunus to be an attack on the civil society movement as a whole. This assault must be seen as a strong pattern of intimidation against human rights defenders and a systematic effort to silence those who dare to reveal the truth, challenge impunity, criticize those in power, and fight for justice. The state must not neglect the political context of this attack. If a human rights defender can be brutally assaulted  in a public space in the nation’s capital, this demonstrates how fragile state protection is for citizens who fight for justice and how narrow the safe space for human rights advocacy has become in Indonesia.

Thus, the enlisted civil society urges Indonesian authorities to:

1. Reveal and take responsibility for providing clarity regarding the handling of this case and the steps taken to protect members of the public who actively voice their opinions, including human rights defenders. We remind the authorities that this case must not end like many other cases of terror and violence against human rights defenders that have faded without resolution.
2. Immediately arrest and prosecute the perpetrators and uncover all individuals involved, including the intellectual actors behind the attack, rather than stopping only at those who carried out the act.
3. Take concrete steps to guarantee safety and provide real protection for Andrie Yunus and other human rights defenders who continue to face intimidation and violence, rather than merely issuing formal statements.
4. Ensure comprehensive recovery, guarantee the best possible medical care, and provide rehabilitation for the victim and the victim’s family following this brutal attack.

The civil society coalition also calls on international solidarity to continuously monitor the situation, urge the Indonesian authorities and join us in opposing the attack and terror against human rights defenders.

We affirm that terror against one human rights defender is terror against the entire civil society. We continue to monitor this case until the perpetrators and those responsible are brought to justice and given fair punishment. There cannot  be any space for terror against human rights defenders in a democratic country.

Jakarta, 13 March 2026

Civil Society Coalition