"They were state officials, but not the president. However, it is not my capacity to explain this. The perpetrators made a survey, and photographed or had drawn in their terms. When that happened, it was the 'setting' that would shake the country. We were given a chance to take efforts about this disclosure," said the Head of the Public Relations Division, Inspector General Mohammad Iqbal, at the Office of the Coordinating Ministry for Politics, Law and Security here on Monday.
To find out more details, he said, the police were conducting a deeper investigation.
The four national figures were targeted by six people who have been named as suspects.
"This group is strongly suspected of wanting to create a martyr or riots during the 21 and 22 May 2019 demonstrations," he said.
Of the six suspects, namely with initials HK (Iwan), Azeb, IF, TJ, AD and AF alias Fifi, each had a different assigned role.
"On March 14, 2019, HK received Rp150 million and TJ received Rp25 million from someone. TJ was then asked to kill two national figures I did not mention in public," he said.
The police did not want to reveal the names of the national figures who were targeted for murder. However, Iqbal said, both the National Police and the Indonesian military (TNI) knew who the targets were and who the 'someone' was who ordered the murders.
Also, there was an additional request to kill two other national figures, other than those who had been earlier targeted.
"On April 12, 2019, HK received an order to kill national figures. So the four targets of this group was to kill national leaders," Iqbal said.
In addition to planning to kill national figures, there were other orders to kill the leader of a private survey institution, and the suspect had stalked the target house several times.
From the hands of the six suspects, the police confiscated a number of homemade firearms, with both long and short barrels. From one of the suspects, the police also confiscated a bulletproof vest (kevlar) that reads “Police”.
Translator: Bambang Purwanto
Editor: Sri Haryati
Copyright © ANTARA 2019
