National Police Reveals Murder Plan

· 3 minutes read

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The Indonesian National Police revealed that one of the four groups that had organized the riots during the May 21-22 post-election protests, at the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) in Central Jakarta, had allegedly planned an assassination plot targeting four state officials. The National Police claimed to know the identity of the individual who ordered the assassination.The group that planned to assassinate the four officials consisted of six people – HK, alias Iwan, AZ, IR, TJ, AD and AF, alias Fifi – who were arrested in six different locations. The six were among the long list of persons arrested in connection with the May 21-22 riots.

Earlier, the National Police arrested three separate groups suspected of having a covert agenda during the May 21-22 street rallies. The groups include 442 suspects arrested at the rally, three suspects connected to smuggling weapons from Aceh and about 30 terrorist suspects.

National Police public relations head Insp. Gen. Mohammad Iqbal said on Monday (5/27/2019) in Jakarta that HK was the leader of the group that allegedly planned to assassinate the state officials. He was responsible for procuring firearms and recruiting assassins, and was also thought to be a potential shooter. HK was arrested on May 21 at a hotel in Cikini, Central Jakarta.

Investigators then arrested AZ and IR, who had been recruited as shooters. On May 24, investigators arrested TJ in Bogor, West Java. TJ had a role similar to HK in procuring illegal firearms.

"On March 14, HK received Rp 150 million and TJ received Rp 25 million. They were asked to kill two national figures. Then, on April 12, they received an order to kill two other figures,” said Iqbal.

Iqbal declined to disclose the identities of the four targeted officials.

IR also received an order to kill a top official at a polling institute and received Rp 5 million to carry out the killing. The four shooters had apparently surveilled their targets and planned to carry out the attack on May 21. Iqbal claimed they were professional hit men.

Gun dealers

The police also arrested two firearms dealers, AF and AD, who sold guns to HK. The two were arrested separately on May 24 in Central Jakarta’s Thamrin area and North Jakarta’s Koja area. HK allegedly purchased a .38-caliber Taurus revolver from AF, and three homemade firearms from AD: a .52-caliber large firearm, a .22-caliber long-barreled rifle, and a .22-caliber short-barreled rifle. HK made the purchases from October 2018 to March 2019.

Jakarta Police General Crimes deputy director Adj. Sr. Comr. Ade Ary said the National Police had also seized a bulletproof vest bearing the words "Police" from HK.

Iqbal said the police knew the identity of the individual that ordered HK to carry out the assassinations. "We will uncover the perpetrators and bring those behind this action to [justice]," he added.

The National Police are expected to open access to civil society organizations to provide legal assistance to the suspects. "It is still difficult to access information about victims of violence," said Papang Hidayat of Amnesty International Indonesia.

The coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), Yati Andriyani, said that Kontras, LBH Jakarta and LBH Press were open to receiving complaints from people who were victims of the May 21-22 riots. (SAN/EDN)

Editor:

kompascetak