REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA — Police said Habib Bahar bin Smith, a suspect in alleged hate speech and insult to President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) case only charged with Law No. 40/2008 on Elimination of Racial and Ethnic Discrimination. So far, he was not charged under Law No. 11/2008 as amended by Law No.19/2018 on Information and electronic Transactions (ITE).
According to National Police spokesman Syahar Diantono, the case started when Habib Bahar delivered his lecture on January 8, 2017, during the closing ceremony event of Maulid Arba’in in Palembang, South Sumatra. However, he did not elaborate further as the detail of Habib Bahar speech was material of the investigation.
“Language expert has been summoned to explain Habib Bahar statement,” Syahar said on Friday (Dec 7).
Syahar said in the report against Habib Bahar, ITE Law was mentioned. However, in the development of investigation, he was only charged with Article 16 Law No. 40/2008 on Elimination of Racial and Ethnic Discrimination.
“Habib Bahar bin Smith did not distribute and upload, so we focus on Law No. 40/2008,” Syahar added.
National Police then would immediately hand over Habib Bahar case to public prosecutor, when the file is completed.
In one of his lectures back in 2017, Habib Bahar allegedly spreaded hate speech against Jokowi. He said Jokowi as a traitor of the country and the people as the president did not respond to the ulemas request to meet during 411 rally on November 4, 2016.
The 411 rally was known as the Second Action to Defend Islam to call for the prosecution of then-Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama or Ahok for blasphemy. Jokowi left the Palace and continued his agenda to review airport train railways project. Habib Bahar said Jokowi seems like a sissy.
As a respond of his lecture, Habib Bahar was reported to National Police by Jokowi Mania Secretary General. In addition, the report also came from Cyber Indonesia Muannas Aladid to Jakarta Police.
So far, police has examined 15 witnesses related to habib Bahar case.There were 11 public witnesses and four expert witnesses in the examination.
In addition, eight evidences also have been seized. Police has made this case into investigation stage.
Previously, Habib Bahar has been scheduled to be questioned by National Police Criminal Investigation Unit (Bareskrim) on last Monday (Dec 3). However, he failed the summon, but on Thursday (Dec 6) he finally fulfilled the second summon at 11.28 WIB (Indonesia West Standard Time).
He was known to be questioned until 23.00 WIB. Then, he was named as suspect after the examination.
Previously, Habib Bahar bin Smith has vowed that he would not apologize for his lecture allegedly contained an insult to Jokowi. He also said that he prefered to be detained in prison, rather than apologize over his speech.
“I will never apologize, i prefer to be rotten in prison, Allahu Akbar,” Habib Bahar said at National Monument (Monas), in Central Jakarta, on last Sunday (Dec 2).
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