JUSTICE FOR AGA

Aga is a harm reduction activist in Jakarta, Indonesia, and the founder of the Indonesian Drug User Network (IDU-Net). He is a passionate visionary for drug user liberation, drawing global attention at the 2023 Harm Reduction International Conference to Indonesia’s zero-tolerance drug policies and mounting HIV crisis.

In the evening of February 2, 2024, Aga was arrested for possessing a personal amount of cannabis. 10 plain-clothed police officers illegally entered his apartment without a warrant, violating Indonesia’s 2019 police reform laws, and the apartment’s security claims there is no CCTV footage during the time of the arrest. After arrest, Aga was coerced into signing a false chronology of events, under threat of the police mining his phone for the names and contacts of his loved ones. As a leader at the forefront of the fight for harm reduction in Indonesia, his arrest is devastating to his community and their organizing work.

What is happening to Aga is not an isolated case: Indonesian people who use drugs face similar human rights violations and abuses of police power daily. Indonesia has long been known for its draconian drug policies, punishing selling charges with the death penalty and possession charges with 4 years of incarceration and mandatory treatment. Here, we have to take a stand. Aga is a leader of our movement, a proud drug user, and a seasoned advocate for people marginalized by the War on Drugs. He has put in tremendous effort and sacrificed himself for his community, and he is now being targeted and subjected to state violence. With the help of the international community, we will take a stand and put up a legal battle, hoping to spark a turning point in the continuous marginalization of Indonesian people who use drugs.

Aga’s girlfriend and community are hoping to hire a lawyer to dispute his unprocedural arrest. This will cost $3,500 USD. Please donate to support Aga and show solidarity with international harm reduction activism. None of us are free until all of us are free.

For transparency, this money will be transferred via PayPal to Aga’s girlfriend, as GoFundMe does not operate in Indonesia. Proof of transfer will be posted after funds are raised and delivered.

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May 15, 2024 update:

Hi everyone! Thank you for generously supporting Aga in the last call for aid. Your donations were able to pay for his lawyer (proof of transfer [email redacted]o and @globalharmreductionist on Instagram). Additionally, Aga has written a letter from detention about his experiences, which is also posted and translated on these accounts.

There have been some recent and concerning developments about Aga's case in the past week. Aga has been in jail since his arrest in February, and he has been asked to sign multiple extensions of detention. The most recent was signed last week, when we also learned about a miscommunication about the articles involved in his case. It has come to our attention that Aga has an extra charge, meaning he will likely be disqualified from any restorative justice/rehabilitative options. Instead, Aga will be brought to trial and forced to navigate many more months of court processes. Aga’s lawyer is already filing a report on the subpar performance of the investigators, which has caused the case to proceed very slowly thus far. While waiting in jail, Aga has fallen sick multiple times and been hospitalized once. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated occurrence- thousands of people who use drugs in Indonesia are subject to similar conditions daily. Before his arrest, Aga was advocating for drug policy reform, and he is praying for a quick release to return to his organizing work. To continue to pay for his lawyer’s advocacy to speed up the process and free Aga, we are hoping to fundraise $1000 more.