Prita Mulyasari

Prita Mulyasari is an Indonesian housewife and mother of two who in 2008 was a patient at Omni International Hospital in Tangerang, west of Jakarta, for an illness that was misdiagnosed as dengue fever, whereas she actually had mumps.[1] Her complaints about her misdiagnosis started as a private email that went viral and she was jailed after losing a civil defamation suit taken by the hospital in 2009.

The case highlighted the over-reaction of Indonesian prosecutors when presented with cases being pursued by influential individuals and companies. [2] Due to the proximity of the presidential elections in July 2009, the various candidates either visited Prita Mulyasari in jail or publicly commented on the case.[3][4][5]

Support from a group on MySpace attracted considerable support[6] as well as Indonesian blog sites.[7][8][9][10]

The case brought attention to clauses of the Indonesian Information and Electronic Transaction Law which are currently being challenged and questioned as a result of Prita Mulyasari's case.[11]

Prita was fined 204 million rupiah (US$20,500), causing support for her to grow stronger. A mailing list and Facebook group called "KOIN UNTUK PRITA"[12] started raising money from people throughout Indonesia. People started collecting coins to help Prita to pay the fine.[13][14] Seeing the huge support for Prita, Omni International Hospital dropped the civil lawsuit.

The Indonesian Supreme Court in June 2012 overturned Prita's conviction and jail sentence.[15]