Militant slapped with vandalism charges<\/p>\n
Blontank Poer, The Jakarta Post, Sukoharjo<\/p>\n
Police officers declared the leader of a Muslim militant group a
\nsuspect on Thursday, three days after he led a mob attack on
\nrestaurants selling alcoholic drinks.<\/p>\n
The rare arrest of a religious vigilante leader could be a
\nsign that the police are starting to lose patience with the
\nmilitant groups and their violent raids on nightclubs and
\nrestaurants, particularly during Ramadhan.<\/p>\n
Adj. Comr. Muhammad Ngajib, a police detective investigating
\nthe attack, confirmed that Cholid Syaifullah had been questioned
\nand named a suspect.<\/p>\n
Cholid, one of the leaders of the Coalition of the Surakarta
\nMuslim Community, was charged with violating Criminal Code and
\ninstigating and leading the attack. If he is found guilty, he
\ncould get a maximum sentence of seven years in prison.<\/p>\n
Cholid and his crew attacked restaurants on Jl. Langenharjo in
\nSurakarta city on Monday night. At least four people were injured
\nand two restaurants were damaged in the attack.<\/p>\n
Contacted separately, Cholid admitted to being confused by the
\ncharges against him. He insisted that he could not possibly be
\nguilty because by raiding restaurants, he was helping the police
\ndepartment by reducing the distribution of alcohol during
\nRamadhan.<\/p>\n
Although the attack was carried out by a group of at least 50
\nyoung men, Cholid was the only person named a suspect. Awod,
\nanother of the leaders in the raid, has confirmed that he, a man
\nnamed Umar and Cholid had been questioned by the police after the
\nattack, but only Cholid was detained and declared a suspect.<\/p>\n
Despite the arrest, the extremists were adamant about
\ncontinuing the raids on alcohol sellers during Ramadhan.<\/p>\n
\"We are not deterred by the police force's uncompromising
\nposture,\" declared Awod.<\/p>\n
The arrest of the hard-line Muslim leader comes after the
\narrest of eight rank-and-file members of the Islam Defenders
\nFront (FPI) on Tuesday. They were arrested for weapons possession
\nas they protested in front of the police headquarters in West
\nJakarta.<\/p>\n
The series of arrests by the police could be evidence that
\nthey had decided to get tough on the vigilante groups, who
\nregularly take the law into their own hands -- often violently.
\nOver the last several years, similar hard-line raids were carried
\nout but they never led to any arrests, prompting the public to
\naccuse the police of ignoring their crimes.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/militant-slapped-with-vandalism-charges-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}