The Jakarta Metro Police yesterday arrested Bukhori Muslim — a cleric known as one of the founders of the Persaudaraan 212 (PA 212), an Islamist political advocacy group — for his alleged role in defrauding 27 people of at least US$136,500 in a Hajj pilgrimage scam.
According to the police, Bukhori was first reported to authorities last June by his accuser, who has been identified by the initials MJ, who claims to have been scammed by the PA 212 founder. According to MJ, Bukhori had convinced them and the other victims that he could obtain special Hajj visas for them that could bypass the government’s annual limited quota of Hajj pilgrims from Indonesia.
After the offer was accepted, Bukhori and MJ met at the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Jakarta, where the latter handed the cleric 27 passports and cash totaling US$136,500 for the visa application. At the time, MJ did not ask for any receipt from Bukhori.
“The victim trusted that the accused could sort out the visa application because the accused is an ulema who has delivered sermons in various places,” Jakarta Metro Police Spokesperson Argo Yuwono told reporters today, as quoted by Kompas.
Bukhori promised MJ that the visas would be ready in three days, but they never came.
MJ eventually reported Bukhori to the police, who have charged him with fraud and/or money laundering under the KUHP (Criminal Code), either of which is punishable by up to four years in prison.
Bukhori was one of the founders of the PA 212 movement, an umbrella organization containing several hardline Islamist groups formed after the mass protest against then-Jakarta Governor Basuki “BTP” Tjahaja Purnama on December 12, 2016 for his trumped up blasphemy charges. Other founders include Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) leader Rizieq Shihab and lawyer Kapitra Ampera.
Kapitra, who has distanced himself from PA 212 after joining President Joko Widodo’s PDI-P party to run as a legislative candidate in the upcoming April 17 election, says he was asked by Bukhori to represent him in the case.
“Maybe later if the case goes on, but I can’t represent him now because I’m currently running for the legislative election,” Kapitra said.
Many Indonesian seeking to go on Islamic pilgrimages to Saudi Arabia have fallen victim to travel scams. A notorious case involved a travel agency called First Travel that allegedly scammed people out of billions of rupiah with their offers of cheap Umrah pilgrimage packages. The husband and wife behind the agency were sentenced to 20 and 18 years in jail, respectively, after their trial last year.
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