TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A screenshot of WhatsApp chat appearing to be on behalf of Jakarta Metro Police Chief Insp. Gen. Fadil Imran talking about a plan to kill the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) leader Rizieq Shihab went viral on social media. It was said that the conversation was revealed by hackers and covered by online news media detik.com.

Jakarta Metro Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Yusri Yunus clarified that the text was a hoax. “This is false news,” he said in Metro Police HQ, South Jakarta, Wednesday, Dec. 9.

When asked for confirmation, Yusri said, detik.com denied it had published the news. “This is an edited [photo]. The media has never published such news,” Yusri added.

The hoax photo circulated on social media showed that Fadil Imran chatted with someone and ordered the recipient to arrest and shoot Rizieq Shihab on Monday, Dec. 7, as well as secure CCTV cameras.

As previously reported, the police confirmed that they shot dead six members of FPI in the early hours of Monday, Dec. 7, in KM50 of Jakarta-Cikampek toll road, as an act of self-defense. The FPI, however, denied the police’s claim and asserted that the group members had no firearms.

The police stated they were keen to find the person who created and spread the fake chat and would charge the perpetrator with the ITE Law.

Read: MUI Calls for Police Transparency in the Killings of FPI Members

M JULNIS FIRMANSYAH