2 Residents Of Hoax Spreading Archery In Mataram Threatened 6 Years In Prison

A press conference on a hoax case regarding an archery incident in Mataram City, NTB, claimed lives. (ANTARA/Dhimas BP)

MATARAM - Two men with the initials EH and W, residents of West Lombok Regency, are threatened with 6 years in prison. Both of them spread hoaxes about the shooting in Mataram City, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), which claimed lives.

Mataram City Police Chief Commissioner Heri Wahyudi explained that the prison sentence was in accordance with the criminal provisions stipulated in Article 45 paragraph 1 Juncto Article 28 paragraph 1 of Law No. 19/2016 concerning Amendments to Law No. 11/2008 concerning Information and Electronic Transactions.

"Article 28 paragraph 1 regulates that every person intentionally without the right to spread false and misleading news. The criminal provisions for such a rule are stated in Article 45 paragraph 1, the threat is 6 years in prison," said Heri.

He added, from the results of the interim examination, it was revealed that EH was the party who uploaded photos of the victims of the arrows on Facebook.

"Through his personal account, EH uploaded it by conveying the incident (photo of the arrow victim) in Mataram," he said.

The motive for the perpetrators to upload such content, he explained, was because he wanted to tell the public to be careful.

The photos of the victims of the archery that actually took place in Bima City were obtained by EH from his colleague with the initials W.

"So, initially W made a status on 'WhatsApp Messenger' by displaying photos of the victims of the archery action. Then EH took samples and re-uploaded them to his personal Facebook account," he said.

Therefore, the police arrested the two perpetrators. From the handling process, Heri ensured that this case was still in the investigation stage and would soon move up to the investigation stage.

Investigators have already pocketed the evidence related to this case, including smartphones belonging to the two perpetrators and copies of content and statuses showing photos of victims of arrows.

"Later on, from the evidence that we get, we will hold it up to determine if this case will go to the investigation stage," he said.

Although he has not yet gone to the investigation stage and determined the role of the suspect, Heri ensured that the actions of the two perpetrators fulfilled the criminal element that led to the violation of the Information and Electronic Transactions Law (ITE).

"In addition to the ITE Law, the actions of the two perpetrators lead to criminal violations of Article 14 paragraphs 1 and 2 of the Republic of Indonesia Law Number 1/1946 concerning the Criminal Law Regulations, which regulates criminal allegations of spreading false news," he said.