Bahar Bin Smith Became Suspected And Arrested, This Is The Process Series

Bahar Smith visited the West Java Regional Police, Bandung, West Java, Monday, December 3 (Photo: Bagus A Rizaldi/Antara)

JAKARTA - Lecturer Bahar bin Smtih has officially been named a suspect in the alleged hate speech case. In fact, Bahar was decided to be detained.

"His status was upgraded and he became a suspect," said West Java Police Head of Public Relations Kombes Ibrahim Tompo when confirmed, Tuesday, January 4.

The determination of this suspect, said Tompo, after West Java Police investigators obtained strong evidence of a criminal offense committed by Bahar bin Smith.

In addition, investigators also decided to arrest Bahar bin Smith. The detention was carried out after the lecturer was examined for 8 hours.

"The examination started at around 1 to 9 o'clock. He has been detained at the West Java Regional Police," said Ibrahim Tompo.

Dozens of Witnesses and Experts

The investigation and investigation of the alleged hate speech case also went through a fairly long process. Because the West Java Police must ask for information from dozens of people as witnesses and experts

"There were 34 people who were examined as witnesses," said the Head of the Public Relations Division of the National Police Public Relations Division, Brigadier General Ahmad Ramadhan.

Of the dozens of people, 13 of them were reporting witnesses to witnesses who were at the scene. While the rest are experts. They are experts on religion, language, and ITE.

"It consists of 1 reporter and then 3 witnesses who together with the reporter saw the YouTube channel. Then three religious leaders and 6 witnesses who were at the TKP," said Ramadhan.

This expert examination was carried out to strengthen the existence of criminal violations in the case. Thus, the investigative team decided to escalate the case of the alleged hate speech to an investigation.

"Then investigators have also examined 21 experts of which 21 experts consist of religious experts, 4 linguists, 4 criminal experts, two ITE experts, 4 people, then 2 legal political sociologists and 3 forensic medical experts," said Ramadan.