The official investigation into the assault charges filed against Joice Warouw, the woman who became infamous in Indonesia after a video of her slapping an airport security officer in Manado went viral, is underway as she has been called in for questioning by the police in Jakarta today.
National Police Spokesman Rikwanto today told the media that Joice is going to be questioned by detectives from the Manado Police, where the incident occurred, while she was in Jakarta as she was scheduled to arrive in the capital at 3pm today after traveling from West Sumatra.
“To ease (the investigation), we’ll borrow a place here (at the Jakarta Metro Police headquarters),” Rikwanto said, as quoted by Antara.
Some have speculated that Joice would receive special treatment from investigators because she is married to a police general, but the police have assured the public that they would treat this case like any other.
On Wednesday, a video of an irate woman identified as Joice at Manado City’s Sam Ratulangi Airport went viral in Indonesia. The woman, clad in all black and wearing bug eye sunglasses (while indoors, mind you), looked extremely upset that she had been asked by airport security officers to take off her metal watch for the X-ray checkpoint, as is standard procedure. Instead of complying, she had to be held back by her daughter as she tried to fight a female officer before slapping said officer in the face.
According to local police, two reports were filed against Joice, one by the security officer who was slapped as seen in the video, and another by another officer who was hit in the arm, an incident which was not captured on film.
The video attracted so much attention in Indonesia that even the country’s Transportation Minister, Budi Karya Sumadi, publicly condemned Joice’s actions and called for the case to be dealt with in accordance with the law regardless of her husband’s position.
There were also reports of Joie submitting a police report against the security officers she allegedly assaulted for some unspecified “inappropriate behavior” towards her. However, the police have not made any indication that they would move forward with investigating her accusation.