TEMPO.CO, Jakarta-Two activists of Indigenous People Alliance (AMAN) Maluku Utara, Adlun Fiqri and Yunus Afrizal, have been named as suspects and arrested by police. Alghif Fari Aqsa from Legal Aid Institute Jakarta considered the move as a criminalization.
“It’s an arbitrary arrest. It shouldn’t have been regarded as a criminal conduct, but it has,” he told Tempo yesterday, May 15, 2016.
Military members of 1501 Ternate Military Command Area Intelligence Unit arrested AMAN activists, Adlun Fiqri and Yunus, for wearing shirts bearing the words ‘PKI [Pecinta Kopi Indonesia, or Indonesian Coffee Lovers]’ on Wednesday. Ternate Police said the shirts worn by both Adlun and Yunus use the symbol of hammer and sickle, deemed to spread communism, marxism and leninism.
Alghif considered that police have been overreacting. The PKI (Indonesian Coffee Lovers) remark has no association with the spread of communism. “After all, they didn’t start a communist organization,” he said.
Community Relations Bureau Chief of Police Headquarters Birgadier General Agus Rianto claims that police have hard evidence to name Adlun and Yunus as suspects. Among others, a collection of books about communism and leftist shirts that were uploaded to social media. “To collect is to keep. But if [the collection] is photographed, shared via WhatsApp or Facebook, etc, it’s called disseminating,” he said.
On the PKI (Indonesia Coffee Lovers) remark, it is a word play of the real meaning of the PKI (Indonesian Communist Party), according to Agus. He considered that the substance is similar with the conduct of spreading communism.
Consequently, both are charged with violating Article 107a of Law No.27/1999 on State Security Crime with 12-year prison sentence at the maximum.
Community Relations Division Chief of Police Headquarters Brigadier General Boy Rafli Amar said the police have asked for suggestions from experts to review the confiscated documents. On the arrest, Boy said that both have been required to make reports.
DEWI SUCI RAHAYU | BUDHY NURGIANTO | MUH. SYAIFULLAH
