"The Crime Investigation Department (Bareskrim) of the Police Headquarters has detained seven suspects," said the Director of General Crimes of the Crimes Investigation Department Brig Agus Andrianto, here on Thursday.
The other two suspects were not yet detained by Indonesian Police because one of them, HR, is being held by the Philippine National Police, while the other suspect remains at large.
Suspect HR allegedly worked individually, though the others worked collectively in their travels. HR, in this case, is believed to be the person who prepared the exit permit facility, or arranged for permission to leave the country with the consent of the government, in this case the Philippine government.
HR is known to have Malaysian and Philippine passports.
Police had already named the nine suspects in the case of the departure of 177 pilgrims from Indonesia, who were also illegally listed on the Philippine Hajj quota. They are H, HR, AS, BDMW, MNA, MT alias A, AH and ZAP.
The suspects were charged under Article 62 of Law No. 8 of 1999 on Consumer Protection, Article 64 and 63 of Law No. 13/2008 on Hajj, and Article 378 of the Criminal Code on fraud, punishable by 12 years in prison.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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