He has been under police custody since January 27, 2021Jakarta (ANTARA) - A day after he was named a suspect for allegedly posting racist remarks against a noted Papuan human rights defender on social media, People's Conscience Party (Hanura) politician Ambroncius Nababan was detained by police on Wednesday.
"He has been under police custody since January 27, 2021," director of the National Police's Cybercrime Investigation Division, Brig.Gen. Slamet Uliandi, told journalists here on Wednesday.
The suspect has been detained to prevent him from escaping and tampering with evidence of his criminal offence, he said.
Nababan has been charged with allegedly violating Chapter 45A Point 2 of Indonesia's Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law No.11/2018, and Chapter 16 juncto Chapter 4 (b) Point 2 of Anti-Discrimination Law No. 40/2008.
If found guilty, he will face imprisonment of more than five years.
The police's cybercrime investigators named Nababan a suspect after grilling him over his alleged racist remarks against former commissioner of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), Natalius Pigai, on his social media account.
Investigators asked Nababan 25 questions during his interrogation on Monday evening before deciding to name him a suspect in the case on Tuesday, Slamet Uliandi said earlier.
The National Police took over the probe from the West Papua and Papua police headquarters.
West Papua police had received a report seeking a police probe into Nababan's alleged racist remark from chairman of the Indonesian Youth National Committee (KNPI), West Papua chapter, Sius Dowansiba, early this week.
Meanwhile, Nababan had disclosed to CNN Indonesia the reason behind his posting photos of Natalius Pigai and a gorilla on his Facebook account.
Nababan, who is also general chairman of the Pro-Jokowi-Amin Volunteers (Projamin), was quoted by CNN Indonesia on Monday as saying that he had made the remarks in response to Pigai's statement rejecting Sinovac’s COVID-19 vaccine.
As a volunteer for incumbent President Joko Widodo, Nababan had voiced his discontent over Pigai's statement, according to CNN Indonesia.
In response to Nababan's remarks, Pigai wrote a post using his Twitter handle @NataliusPigai2 for Lloyd Austin, a retired army general appointed by US President Joe Biden as his defense secretary.
Austin is the first African American to hold the top Pentagon post in US history.
"I am proud of you, mr@LloydAustin, black African American most powerful gentleman in the world. We have been on fire against Indonesian Collective (state) Racism to black African Melanesian (Papuan) for more than 50 years. Torture, killing & slow motion genocide. We need attention," Pigai wrote.
In August and September, 2019, Papua and West Papua had come under the radar of both Indonesian and foreign media after a spate of violence engulfed several parts of the two Indonesian provinces.
On August 28, 2019, violence had erupted in Deiyai district, about 500 kilometers away from Jayapura, resulting in the deaths of an army soldier and two civilians.
The indigenous Papuan residents of Jayapura had again held protests on August 29, 2019, venting ire over alleged racist behavior against their Papuan compatriots in Surabaya, but their rally had taken a violent turn.
On September 23, 2019, a deadly riot had erupted in Wamena, the capital of Jayawijaya district, Papua province, which had claimed the lives of 33 civilians, including a senior medical doctor, who had served native Papuans for 15 years. (INE)
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Translator: Anita PD, Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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