The Attorney General's Office Receives SPDP For Blasphemy Cases With Reported Panji Gumilang

The Head of the Legal Information Center of the Attorney General's Office (AGO) Ketut Sumedana said that Jaka Agung Muda for General Crimes (Jampidum) at the AGO had received a notification letter for the start of the investigation (SPDP) from the Criminal Investigation Unit of the Police on behalf of the reported Panji Gumilang.

"The Attorney General's Office of Sumpium has received SPDP from the Directorate of General Crimes at Bareskrim Polri on behalf of the reported ARPG alias SPG alias PG alias AT, issued by investigators on July 5, 2023," Sumedana said as reported by ANTARA, Thursday, July 13.

ARPG alias SPG alias PG alias AT is the bright name of Panji Gumilang, namely Abdussalam Rasyidi Panji Gumilang alias Sheikh Panji Gumilang alias Panji Gumilang alias Abu Toto.

Sumedana explained that the SPDP was related to alleged criminal acts of blasphemy/religious blasphemy held in Indonesia and/or broadcasting fake news that caused trouble and/or intentionally and without the right to spread information aimed at causing hatred or hostility to certain individuals and/or groups of people based on SARA.

"As referred to in Article 156a of the Criminal Code and/or Article 14 paragraph (1) of Law Number 1 of 1946 concerning Criminal Law Regulations and/or Article 45A paragraph (2) in conjunction with Article 28 paragraph (2) of Law Number 19 of 016 concerning amendments to Law Number 11 of 2008 concerning ITE," said Ketut.

Separately, the Head of the Public Information Bureau (Karopenmas) of the National Police's Public Relations Division, Brigadier General Ahmad Ramadhan, said investigators are currently gathering information from expert witnesses. The expert witnesses who were questioned were linguists, sociologists, ITE (information and electronic transactions), and religion.

For linguists, an examination was carried out on Wednesday (12/7), and today three expert witnesses, namely religion, ITE and sociology.

"This religious expert witness consists of several elements, some from the Ministry of Religion, from MUI, Nahdlatul Ulama, some from Muhammadiyah," he said.

In addition to expert witness testimony, he said, investigators are also waiting for the results of the examination of evidence carried out by the Forensic Laboratory Center (Puslabfor) of the Criminal Investigation Unit of the Police.

According to Ramadhan, after asking for expert witness statements, investigators will summon Panji Gumilang with the status of a witness.

"Later, after a thorough examination of expert witnesses, then when the forensic laboratory results come out, investigators from the Directorate of General Crimes at Bareskrim Polri will conduct a case title," he said.

Ramadhan also emphasized that currently investigators are focusing on handling cases of alleged criminal acts of blasphemy reported by the public to Bareskrim Polri and the overflow of cases from the West Java Police, not yet a case of alleged money laundering.

"I convey that the focus that has been carried out is on the investigation submitted by investigators from the Directorate of General Crimes in the blasphemy case, so we first focus on handling it," said Ramadhan.