PROSECUTION TO APPEAL PRITA'S ACQUITTAL

Jakarta, Dec 30 (ANTARA) - The Tangerang public prosecutor's office is to appeal a district court's decision to acquit housewife Prita Mulyasari from defamation charges, a spokesman said.
"We will appeal the verdict in a superior court," Didiek Darmanto, official spokesman of the Attorney General's Office (AGO), said here Tuesday.

The Tengerang District Court on Monday declared Prita not guilty of having defamed Omni International Hospital by complaining in her e-mail about sub-standard treatment she had experienced when she was a patient at the hospital.

The hospital considered Prita's e-mail story titled "Fraudulent Treatment at Omni International Hospital" to her friends and relations as defamatory and reported her to the police.

She was arrested and spent 21 days behind bars while the prosecutor's office prepared a dossier in which defamation charges were made based on the Information and Electronic Transactions Law and the Penal Code. The prosecution demanded that she be sentenced to six months imprisonment.

But the jury at the Tangerang district court on Monday ruled Prita had not defamed anybody and her e-mail story was just a warning to the public to be careful in choosing a
hospital for medical treatment
The jury concluded the defamation charges made by the prosecution had not been proven so that Prita had to be acquitted. ***4***
(T.R021/HAJM/18:35/a014)