Scenes of anarchy dominated Jakarta’s taxi riots on March 22, during which many of the capital’s taxi drivers took to the streets in violent protests against their ride-sharing competition such as Uber and Grab. Soon after the protests, the police arrested a Blue Bird taxi driver by the name of Feri Yanto, the owner of the Facebook account “Feri Yanto Pendekar Blue Bird” (Ferry Yanto the Blue Bird Swordsman), who was accused of being partially responsible for instigating violence during the riots through provocative posts on Facebook.
Now no longer a Blue Bird driver, Feri Yanto yesterday attended his first court hearing session at the South Jakarta District Court, in which the prosecutors indicted him with violating the Information and Electronic Transactions Act (UU ITE) for his provocative posts.
“[The defendant provoked the rioters] by calling on them to march to the front of the State Palace with sharp or blunt weapons like swords and sickles, and, if necessary, Molotov cokctails,” said prosecutor Ibnu Suud as he read out the indictment, as quoted by Okezone.
“This created anarchy and fear among the people in general, and specifically among the community of Uber and Grab drivers.”
Indonesia’s controversial ITE law criminalizes defamatory or provocative statement made online. Under the law, Fery could face a maximum of six years imprisonment or a maximum fine of Rp 1 billion.
In addition, Ferry was also indicted for violating Article 160 of the Criminal Code for inciting violence.
