Police Wrongly Identify Perpetrators Of Ade Armando's Beating, DPR: Must Apologize!

Video screenshot of Ade Armando being beaten in front of the Indonesian Parliament Building in Jakarta

JAKARTA - Deputy Chairman of Commission III of the Indonesian House of Representatives from the Gerindra faction, Desmond J. Mahendra, urged the police to apologize after incorrectly identifying and arresting the perpetrators of Ade Armando's beating during the April 11 demonstration.

"Yes, the police should apologize," Desmond told reporters, Friday, April 15.

Desmond also asked for an evaluation of the police officer who had the wrong identification. In this case, the police had named the beating suspect, Abdul Manaf, even though he was not proven to have beaten him.

Desmond said that if there was no public apology from the police and its evaluation, this could lead to defamation.

"Against those who are wrongly mentioned, they must apologize because it can be categorized as pollution, an unpleasant act. It is only natural that the National Police institution or the leadership of the Police apologize for the wrong exposure," he said.

For information, the police had said that Abdul Manaf was one of the six perpetrators of the beating of Ade Armando. Polda Metro Jaya has found the whereabouts of Abdul Manaf, who is said to be the suspect in the beating of Ade Armando.

However, from the results of the examination, it turned out that Abdul Manaf was not involved in any beatings or beatings. This is reinforced by the testimony of witnesses who were also examined. In fact, on Monday 11 April, Abdul Manaf was not in Jakarta to take part in the demonstration.

"We checked with several witnesses who were at his residence, people around him explained that on that date he was in Karawang, so it is undeniable that Abdul Manaf was involved in Karawang," said Head of Public Relations of Polda Metro Jaya Kombes E. Zulpan.

Zulpan said there were deficiencies during the identification process. At that time, the figure of the beater Ade Armando wore a hat and had a stature similar to Abdul Manaf. However, investigators who referred based on video recordings did not believe that the perpetrator of the beating was Abdul Manaf.

"He is wearing a hat, which is seen in the picture in the video. He is wearing a hat, we are looking for it. Now, what is used by face recometro is wearing a hat and wearing a hat, it's not 100 percent to Abdul Manaf, who in Karawang, when we got the person he didn't wear a hat, it turned out to be different," Zulpan said