TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto said he would examine the claim voiced by the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) leader Rizieq Shihab about the ban to return to Indonesia.

“I’ll study it first,” said the minister at Presidential Palace Complex, Jakarta, Tuesday, November 12.

Prabowo said he had never heard Rizieq’s allegation saying the government requested the Saudi Arabian government to prohibit the Muslim cleric from returning to Jakarta. “Never heard of it,” he said.

The former general of the Military special forces would also bring up the issue when meeting with Saudi Ambassador to Indonesia Esam Abid Althagafi in his office. “Hopefully so, we will see it later,” he added.

In video footage posted on FPI’s YouTube channel Front TV, Rizieq showed two pieces of letters he claimed as documents that banning him from exiting Saudi Arabia. “These two letters are the real, authentic evidence that I am banned [to return] by the Saudi Arabia government as requested by the Indonesian government,” said Rizieq.

Rizieq Shihab was reportedly still living in Mecca, Saudi Arabia since mid-2017 and had not yet returned home.

The government had denied there was an attempt to ban the cleric from returning to Indonesia. Vice President Jusuf Kalla on July 10, 2019, said that the government had no right to issue such a ban.

AHMAD FAIZ IBNU SANI