Police arrest Gerindra legislative candidate for spreading disinformation

Fuente: 
Jakarta Globe
Fecha de publicación: 
26 Mayo 2019

Jakarta. Mustofa Nahrawardaya, a legislative candidate for the opposition Great Indonesia Movement Party, or Gerindra, was arrested on Sunday for deliberately spreading disinformation.

Chief Comr. Rickynaldo Chairul, head of the cybercrime division at the National Police's Criminal Investigation Agency, said Mustofa spread false information on two separate Twitter accounts about the death of a teenager after a beating by officers of the National Police's Mobile Brigade Corps (Brimob) during the May 22 rally in Jakarta.

Police denied the claim and issued a clarification on Saturday after Mustofa's tweets, including a short video clip, went viral on social media.

They said the person seen in the video is an adult named Andri Bibir, who was arrested by Brimob officers. He is still alive and spoke with journalists at the offices of the Coordination Ministry for Political, Legal and Security Affairs in Jakarta on Saturday, confirming that he was the person seen in the footage.

He is one of 452 people arrested for rioting during the rally in Jakarta by supporters of losing presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto against the result of the April 17 election.

Andri allegedly provided rioters with rocks to attack police officers and also with water to alleviate the effects of tear gas, National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Dedi Prasetyo said on Saturday.

Mustofo reportedly identified the person in the video clip as 15-year-old Harun Al Rasyid, whom he claimed was beaten to death by Brimob personnel outside a mosque near the offices of the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) in Central Jakarta on May 22.

Rickynaldo said Mustofa, who was arrested at 3 a.m. on Sunday, faces a maximum penalty of six years' imprisonment under the Criminal Code and the Electronic Information and Transactions Law.

He served as the coordinator of information technology volunteers for Prabowo's national campaign team.

Farouk Arnaz & Telly Nathalia

Source: https://jakartaglobe.id/context/police-arrest-gerindra-legislative-candi...