Rizieq Shihab And BIN's Mutual Claims Regarding The Meeting In Saudi Arabia

Rizieq Shihab (Irfan Meidianto/VOI)

JAKARTA - The defendant in the case of the UMMI hospital swab test results, Rizieq Shihab admitted that he had met with the Head of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), General (Ret) Budi Gunawan, in Saudi Arabia. Even then, the meeting resulted in an agreement to support all of President Joko Widodo's policies.

Rizieq made this confession when reading his defense memorandum or pledoi. He said the meeting took place at a hotel in the city of Jeddah, in early June 2017.

"The results of the meeting were very good, we made a written agreement in black and white which was signed by me and the BIN Operations Commander Major General TNI (Ret) Agus Suhartodi. in front of the Head of BIN and his team, who then brought the letter to Jakarta and witnessed and also signed the General Chairperson of the Central MUI, KH Ma'ruf Amin, who is now the Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia", said Rizieq in a trial at the East Jakarta District Court, Thursday, June 10.

One of the agreements at the meeting, continued Rizieq, was to support all of Jokowi's policies. As long as it doesn't deviate from religious principles.

"Among the contents of the agreement are to stop all legal cases for me (Rizieq) and friends so that there is no more slander of criminalization, and agree to prioritize dialogue instead of mass mobilization, and are ready to support all the policies of the Jokowi government during does not conflict with the teachings of Islam and the constitution of the Indonesian state", he said.

In fact, in the pledoi Rizieq also mentioned that he was contacted by General (Ret) Wiranto, who at that time served as Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs, at the end of May 2017.

Then, he also met with General (Ret) Tito Karnavian, who at that time served as the National Police Chief. The meeting also took place twice in 2018 and 2019.

Meanwhile, BIN, which responded to the contents of Rizieq's defense memorandum, denied that there was a meeting with General (Ret.) Budi Gunawan in Saudi Arabia. It was also emphasized that there was no agreement letter.

"The issue of the meeting with Mr. Budi Gunawan in Saudi Arabia never happened", said Deputy VII BIN, Wawan Hari Purwanto.

For the letter of agreement claimed by Rizieq, Wawan continued, its whereabouts were never known. If there is, the letter should be recorded in the archives.

"Regarding the letter, I have never seen the letter. So far, MoUs are only carried out between institutions, not with individuals. Every MoU is usually written in a letter and the letterhead bears the logo of an official agency. Because I've never seen it, so I can't confirm it", he explained.

For that reason, Wawan also asked Rizieq to prove the existence of the agreement before the court. That way, the panel of judges will be able to confirm the validity of the letter.

"Since this has been entered in court, then if the letter is shown, the judge will judge the legality and truth of the letter after a forensic examination has been carried out", he said.

As for Rizieq's claim, who also met with General (Ret) Tito Karnavian, who was the National Police Chief at the time, Wawan was reluctant to comment. The reason, it is not within his authority.

"Meanwhile, regarding the meeting with Mr. Tito as the National Police Chief at that time, he asked him directly", he said.