Despite rumors that police might be dropping the pornography charges against fugitive Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) leader Rizieq Shihab, it looks like Rizieq won’t be able to dodge all of the other criminal charges that are waiting for him back in Indonesia.
Members of the Jakarta Police travelled to Saudi Arabia earlier this month to question Rizieq over the high-profile pornography case in which he has been named a suspect. Many have worried that police would drop the case against him after investigators said he had been questioned as “a witness” and not as a suspect, but police have denied that they would simply rescind the charges against him, despite his requests.
Even if Rizieq does manage to get the pornography charges dropped, there are still numerous criminal complaints against him, the most serious of which is the charge that he insulted Indonesia’s found ideology of Pancasila and the country’s founding father Sukarno.
In January, the West Java Police named Rizieq a suspect in the desecration of a state emblem and defamation of a deceased person based on statements Rizieq had made about two years prior during a sermon in West Java in which he supposedly said, “In Sukarno’s Pancasila, God is located in the ass, whereas in the Jakarta charter of Pancasila, God is in the head.” He was reported to the police by Sukarno’s daughter, Sukmawati Soekarnoputri.
While there hasn’t been any movement on the case for several months, the West Java Police recently announced that they are cooperating with Interpol in order to question Rizieq about the case, either in Saudi Arabia or in Indonesia through extradition.
West Java Police Commissioner Umar S Fana said that they had sent two officers to Interpol’s Headquarters in Indonesia in order to facilitate Rizieq’s questioning. This step is taken to summon Rizieq who is in Saudi Arabia.
“If we are talking about extradition there is still one way through Interpol, so we will wait for the order,” Umar said yesterday as quoted by Merdeka.
Umar also said that there was a possibility that Rizieq could be questioned in Saudi Arabia yet again through a liaison officer the Indonesian Police have stationed in the Middle East.
As for the pornography case against Rizieq, the police have said that it was up to the case investigators whether to proceed or drop the case, but they have also noted that they believe they already have enough evidence to convict Rizieq on the incredibly ironic charges and that they would question Rizieq once again over the porn case when he eventually returns to Indonesia, which his lawyers have said he would do sometime after the end of the Hajj pilgrimage.
Additionally, there have been criminal reports filed against Rizieq for committing blasphemy against Christianity and falsely claiming that the new rupiah bills feature the hammer and sickle communist symbol (they don’t).
