Incomplete, The Attorney General's Office Returns The Gumilang Panji Case Files

The head of the Al Zaytun Panji Gumilang Islamic Boarding School arrived at Gedung Sate Bandung to undergo an examination on Friday, June 23, 2023. (ANTARA- Raisan Al Farisi)

The investigating prosecutor at the Attorney General's Office (AGO) returned the case file for the alleged blasphemy case with the suspect Panji Gumilang to the Criminal Investigation Unit of the Police. This is because there are formal and material requirements that are considered incomplete. "The research prosecutor's team is of the opinion that the case file on behalf of the ARPG suspect is not formally and materially complete and therefore needs to be completed or fulfilled by the investigation team of the Directorate of General Crimes at Bareskrim Polri in accordance with the prosecutor's instructions," said the Head of the AGO, Ketut Sumedana in his statement, Wednesday, August 30. The return of the Panji Gumilang case file has been carried out on Tuesday, August 28. The next step, said Ketut, is that the research prosecutor will coordinate with the investigative team. Thus, the process of completing the case files runs quickly. "Furthermore, in order to make the time given by the Law effective, the research prosecutor will coordinate with investigators to accelerate the completion of the investigation process," said Ketut. Meanwhile, the Directorate of General Crimes at Bareskrim Polri handed over the case file for the alleged blasphemy case with the suspect Panji Gumilang, on Wednesday, August 16. The delegation was completed after the investigators completed their preparation by examining 59 witnesses and experts. "We have examined 41 witnesses and then 18 experts," said the Director of General Crimes at Bareskrim Polri Brigadier General Djuhandhani Rahardjo Puro. Dozens of witnesses examined were reporters and parties who were deemed to have knowledge of the alleged blasphemy. Meanwhile, dozens of experts consist of religious experts, sociologists, and criminal experts. In this case, Panji Gumilang is suspected of having multiple articles. First, Article 14 Paragraph 1 of Law Number 1 of 1946 concerning Criminal Law Regulations which carries a penalty of 10 years in prison.

Then, Article 45A paragraph 2 in conjunction with Article 28 paragraph 2 of Law Number 19 of 2016 concerning ITE with a threat of 6 years in prison. Finally, Panji Gumilang was also charged with Article 156 A of the Criminal Code. In this article, the penalty is 5 years in prison.