TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - West Java Police have officially dropped the investigation against Muhammad Rizieq Shihab on an alleged defamation against state symbol Pancasila and the first president Soekarno. Police stated that the case lacked evidence.
The West Java Police had investigated this case for more than a year and had once announced that it had sufficient evidence to hand it over to the state attorney. However, the attorney’s office handed back Rizieq Shihab’s case files to the police since it was deemed incomplete.
Read: Police Halt Rizieq Shihab Case on Alleged Pancasila Insults
The following is the case’s timeline in a chronological order:
October 27, 2016
Sukmawati Soekarnoputri reported Rizieq Shihab to Police’s Criminal Investigation Unit (Bareskrim) for an alleged defamation against the state ideology Pancasila and the late president Soekarno after Rizieq`s speech in Gasibu, Bandung, in 2011.
Rizieq Shihab’s statement in question was; “Soekarno’s Pancasila had divinity at its behind. Meanwhile, Jakarta Charter’s Pancasila has the divinity located on its head,” said the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) leader.
November 23, 2016
Police’s criminal investigation unit handed the case to the West Java Police since it happened in Bandung, West Java.
January 23, 2017
West Java police held an initial investigation together with the Bareskrim to study the facts gathered from eyewitness testimonies and evidentiary items such as the video clip of Rizieq’s controversial speech.
January 30, 2017
West Java Police named the FPI leader as a suspect in the defamation against Pancasila and Soekarno under Article 154 of the Criminal Code and Article 310 on defamation. Police already acquired four evidence but had decided not to arrest Rizieq.
February 7 and 10, 2017
West Java Police summoned Rizieq to be questioned on February 7 but was canceled since Rizieq did not appear. The second summons on February 10 was canceled too after Rizieq failed to appear again.
February 13, 2017.
Rizieq finally fulfilled West Java police summons and brought his thesis entitled ‘The effects of Pancasila towards the implementation of the Islamic law in Indonesia.’ That thesis was to prove that he was innocent.
May 2, 2017
West Java police handed Rizieq’s case to the West Java high prosecutor office.
May 16, 2017
The prosecutor’s office returned Rizieq’s case files after they had deemed it incomplete.
April 26, 2017
Rizieq and his family departed for Saudi Arabia to conduct Umrah. By the end of May, 2017, the Jakarta Metro Police named Rizieq as a suspect of another case that involves Rizieq’s pornographic chat. The following day, Rizieq was officially a fugitive and is said to stay in Saudi Arabia.
June 2, 2017
Despite not being in Indonesia, the West Java Police were still attempting to complete the case files and announced that they would hand over the files to the attorney’s office, which they did not do.
February 2018
The West Java Police announced that it had issued an SP3, which is an investigation-termination warrant since late February for lack of evidence. Furthermore, attorney for Rizieq Shihab, Kapitra Ampera, said that he was only informed of the news earlier this week.
M Rosseno Aji