Police arrested two men suspected of violently attacking IT expert Hermansyah on Jakarta’s Jagorawi toll road on Sunday morning. The attack has been covered heavily in the news because the victim was known as a defender of Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) leader Rizieq Shihab.
The two suspects, both male, were arrested in Depok early this morning. Authorities believe that three more assailants are still on the run.
According to the police, after interrogating the captured suspects, they have concluded that the attack on Hermansyah was simply the result of flared tempers after the suspects’ car bumped into the victim’s on the toll road. The attack was not planned nor was it politically motivated as had been speculated by many.
“(After the collision) there was a chase on the toll road. The victim’s car was stopped by the suspects’ car. The victim was then assaulted. It was spontaneous,” said Maulana Marpaung, head of East Jakarta Police’s Crime Investigation Unit, as quoted by Tempo.
During the attack, the police said that one of the captured suspects repeatedly stabbed Hermansyah with a kitchen knife, causing serious injuries to his head, neck, and arm. The suspects fled the scene soon afterwards, while Hermansyah survived the attack but is still currently being treated at a hospital in Depok.
The police also located the suspects’ car, in which they found the kitchen knife believed to have been used to stab Hermansyah. The police said that the captured suspects worked as debt collectors.
The attack on Hermansyah caught the public’s attention because he had recently appeared on the TVOne political talk show program “Indonesia Lawyer’s Club” and expressed his belief that the pornography case involving firebrand cleric Rizieq Shihab of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) was fabricated in order to bring him down. In fact, Firza Hussein, the woman Rizieq is accused of having an adulterous affair with, planned on bringing in Hermansyah to testify as an expert witness on her behalf before his attack.
