University of Indonesia (UI) lecturer of communications studies Ade Armando has sustained severe injuries, a colleague said, after he was assaulted during a mass protest by university students in Jakarta yesterday.
The assault took place outside the House of Parliament (DPR) complex in Central Jakarta on Monday afternoon. Viral footage of the incident showed dozens of people punching, kicking, and partially stripping the controversial social media activist at the scene.
Warning: Graphic violence
Ade was carried away to safety following the assault. The chairman of the civil organization Indonesia Movement for All (PIS) was admitted to the ICU at Siloam Hospital in Semanggi.
Nong Darol Mahmada, the secretary general of PIS, said Ade’s condition is quite serious.
“The doctor’s tests revealed intracranial hemorrhage,” she said yesterday evening.
“Ade Armando had vomited blood several times.”
Ade has attracted outrage with his statements in recent years, particularly from many Muslims. Some of his most controversial statements include suggesting that Allah, the Islamic God, is not Arab, and that the Islamic call to prayer is not sacred.
Ade’s name has been the top trending topic on Indonesian Twitter since the attack and up to this article’s publication, with many taking delight in seeing him assaulted and humiliated. Others weren’t so impressed, saying that nobody deserves to be the victim of such brutal violence.
Police have yet to identify and capture Ade’s attackers.
