Acid Attack in Indonesia Evokes Brutality of Suharto Era

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Acid Attack in Indonesia Evokes Brutality of Suharto Era

The victim had protested against the widening role of the military, which activists say is reminiscent of the country’s decades-long dictatorship.

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A mural featuring Andrie Yunus, the deputy coordinator of the Kontras rights group, who was the victim of an acid attack, in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Credit...

Bay Ismoyo/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

By

Muktita Suhartono

and

Richard C. Paddock

Muktita Suhartono reported from Jakarta, Indonesia, and Richard C. Paddock reported from Bangkok.

April 28, 2026

Updated

10:53 p.m. ET

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Andrie Yunus, an outspoken critic of the military’s expanding power in Indonesia, was riding his motorbike last month in Jakarta when two men rode past and threw acid in his face. He suffered burns to 24 percent of his body and damage to his right eye.

The ambush, which recalled Indonesia’s decades under a military dictatorship, was captured on street surveillance cameras. Within days, the authorities arrested four members of a military intelligence unit — a captain, two lieutenants and a sergeant. Their trial in a military court began Wednesday.

But human rights activists say that many more people were involved in the attack, and that the rush to try the four men is part of an attempt to shield the mastermind who authorized it.

“This was an intelligence operation,” said Fadhil Alfathan, a member of the Advocacy Team for Democracy, a coalition of rights groups backing Mr. Andrie. “It was a well-planned and well-trained operation, starting with surveillance, stalking, then tailing, execution and escape.”

The assault on Mr. Andrie, 27, the deputy coordinator for the prominent rights group, Kontras, is reminiscent of the brutality of the 32-year dictatorship under Suharto, who stepped down in 1998 in the face of massive pro-democracy protests. Now rights activists fear that the military’s influence is growing again under the current president, Prabowo Subianto, Suharto’s former son-in-law and once

a widely feared general.

Mr. Andrie’s supporters say the acid attack on the evening of March 12 was a premeditated attempt to kill him because of his criticism of the military’s increasing role in government, including a

law

adopted after Mr. Prabowo took office that allows active armed forces officers to hold more government posts.

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