The Jakarta Metro Police’s Cyber Crimes Division arrested three people suspected of forging a letter that appeared to be written and signed by President Joko Widodo.
Two of the suspects are Africans – one identified as Kaba Souleymane from Guinea and the other as Daniel Douglas Divine from Liberia.
“Suspect Kaba was arrested at Aston Rasuna, Kuningan, South Jakarta on Tuesday, and suspect Daniel was arrested at Green Lake Sunter, North Jakarta, early this morning,” said Roberto Gomgom Pasaribu, head of the Jakarta Metro Police Cyber Crimes Division, as quoted by Detik today.
The two suspects, along with an Indonesian national, allegedly wrote up a ‘confidential’ letter, in English, to make it look like President Jokowi was eliciting support for the 2019 presidential election. The letter was sent to numerous businesses and institutions, while photos of it went viral online this month.
While the police have not yet revealed the suspects’ motive behind the forged letter, it’s quite likely that it was a prelude to a money-making scam. A big hint for this is the fact that recipients of the letter were urged to send an e-mail reply to ‘jokowiriana@gmail.com‘ (Iriana being Indonesia’s first lady).
As if the Gmail account wasn’t clue enough, the Presidential Palace did issue a denial of the authenticity of the letter last week.
