Muannas Alaidid: Bahar Smith Arrested In Case Of Fake News, Not About Insulting General Dudung

Bahar Smith/DOC ANTARA

JAKARTA - The Executive Director of the Legal Mafia Eradication Committee (KPMH) Habib Muannas Alaidid commented on the detention of Bahar bin Smith by the West Java Police.

"Bahar bin Smith was arrested for being a suspect in a suspected case of spreading false news, not because of a case of insulting the Army Chief of Staff General Dudung Abdurachman. So this is not Bahar vs General Dudung but Bahar vs the law in Indonesia," said Habib Muannas in his statement, Wednesday, January 5.

Bahar's accusation was conveyed in a public lecture at Margaasih Bandung. In his lecture he mentioned that Rizieq Shihab was arrested just for holding a birthday.

In fact, Rizieq was caught in a legal case regarding the violation of health protocols and there has even been a court decision. Likewise, other heinous accusations mention that 6 Laskar FPI in the incident at KM 50 said they were killed, slaughtered, tortured, had their nails removed, their genitals burned and treated like animals.

Even though it is clear that according to the forensic information and the results of the Komnas HAM investigation, the accusation was not found. What was found was gunshot wounds, it happened because the soldiers were fighting against the officers in the car trying to seize the officers' weapons.

"Thus, because Bahar's source of information is unclear, it can be qualified as false words according to law, as news that is uncertain, excessive and he should have expected such news to cause trouble," explained Muannas.

"The articles that are suspected of Bahar are Article 14 paragraphs 1 and 2 or Article 15 of Law No. 1 of 1946 concerning the Criminal Law Regulation in conjunction with Article 55 of the Criminal Code, and or Article 28 Paragraph 2 in conjunction with Article 45a of the ITE Law in conjunction with Article 55 of the Criminal Code related to allegations of lying. In his lecture, because of that, not only Bahar bin Smith, but also TR, who uploaded the lecture video, was arrested," said Habib Muannas.

Habib Muannas appreciates the police regarding the handling of Bahar bin Smith and believes the police will act professionally.

"I believe the police will be professional in handling and detaining Bahar bin Smith, of course, the investigators have obtained strong evidence and arguments, moreover Bahar bin Smith has made a commotion in the community," he said.

The National Police said that there were two reasons why West Java Police investigators detained Bahar bin Smith and TR in the case of alleged hate speech. Starting from worrying about eliminating evidence to criminal threats of more than 5 years in prison.

"Based on subjective reasons and objective reasons," said Head of Public Information, Police Public Relations Division, Brigadier General Ahmad Ramadhan.

For subjective reasons, investigators think Bahar bin Smith has the potential to eliminate evidence in the case. In fact, it can repeat actions that violate the rules.

"The subjective reason is that investigators are worried that BS and TR will repeat the crime and destroy evidence," said Ramadhan.

As for subjective reasons, continued Ramadhan, in this case the sanction in the article used was up to 5 years in prison. So, with those two reasons, Bahar bin Smith was decided to be detained.

"While the objective reason is the threat of punishment for the articles alleged to be above five years. So there are two reasons, the first is subjective and objective," said Ramadhan.