Sarumpaet, who had been removed from the list of the Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Uno pair`s national team of campaigners, was seen showing two fingers in tick symbol before sitting in the defendant`s chair.
Her daughter, Atiqah Hasiholan, accompanied her when arriving at the court building.
According to Public Prosecutor Arya Wicaksana, the defendant had told that she would go to the West Java city of Bandung on Sept 21, 2018, though, in fact, she went to a hospital for having a cosmetic surgery.
At that time, Sarumpaet, who made a statement that she had been assaulted in Bandung, then exposed a photo showing her swollen face. She also shared the photo to several of her colleagues and employees, Wicaksana stated.
In October last year, Sarumpaet was arrested and named a suspect after the police found that a photo showing her swollen face was not the result of an assault. Instead, her swollen face was caused by a cosmetic surgery at a hospital in Jakarta.
The police investigation`s findings had forced Sarumpaet to retract her false claims. However, her claims that she had been attacked by three assailants in the West Java city of Bandung had put the Subianto- Uno camp in trouble.
The trouble emerged because a day before Sarumpaet retracted her false claims and the police could have proven her false claims, Subianto and several figures within his camp happened to have made statements urging the police to probe into the assault case.
But, after realizing that Sarumpaet`s claims were absolutely not true, Subianto openly apologized to the people.
The police investigators charged Sarumpaet with Article 14 of Law Number 1/1946 on Regulation of Criminal Procedure, and Article 28 Juncto Article 45 of Law Number 11/2008 on Information and Electronic Transaction.
Due to Sarumpaet?s false claims, the police investigators questioned several witnesses who were important figures within the Subainto-Uno camp, including Amien Rais, Dahnil Anzar Simanjuntak, Nanik S. Deyang, and Said Iqbal.
Sarumpaet`s bravery to reveal the truth about her false claims that she had been assaulted last year was appreciated by incumbent President Joko Widodo.
"I give her two thumbs up," Widodo told graduates of several universities and schools who joined the "Declaration of Diponegoro Alumni Coalition`s Support for Jokowi-Amin Pair" in Semarang, Central Java Province, on Feb 3, 2019.
Reporting by Taufik Ridwan, Rahmad Nasution
Reporter: Antara
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
Copyright © ANTARA 2019
