Bareskrim Faces Obstacles in Repatriating Fugitive Ahmad Al Misry to Indonesia
Bareskrim Polri has revealed obstacles in repatriating Syekh Ahmad Al Misry, a fugitive in a case of alleged sexual abuse against Islamic boarding school students (santri), to Indonesia.
Syekh Ahmad Al Misry is currently on Interpol’s red notice list and is said to be in Egypt.
Kombes Faisal Febrianto, Head of Sub-Directorate II of the Directorate of Crimes against Women and Children and Human Trafficking (Dittipid PPA-PPO) at Bareskrim Polri, said the main obstacle in the repatriation effort relates to the suspect’s citizenship status.
“Regarding dual citizenship, when the perpetrator or suspect applied to become an Indonesian citizen, automatically, because we do not recognise dual citizenship, one of the citizenships — the original or initial one, namely Egypt — must have been relinquished by the person concerned,” Faisal told reporters on Wednesday (19/8).
However, further investigation revealed that Egyptian regulations allow a person to retain their original citizenship even after changing nationality.
“But after further investigation regarding the original citizenship, it turns out Egypt has regulations that allow dual citizenship,” he said.
Faisal said his team is continuing to coordinate with the Egyptian Embassy in Indonesia regarding the repatriation effort.
In addition to the citizenship issue, Indonesia also does not have an extradition treaty with Egypt. Therefore, Polri must maximise international cooperation through Interpol channels.
“We are still cooperating with Interpol through the International Relations Division (Hubinter) of Polri because our country does not have an extradition agreement with Egypt,” he said.
“So we have chosen the Interpol route to repatriate the suspect,” he added.
Syekh Ahmad Al Misry was named a suspect in the alleged sexual abuse case against santri by Bareskrim Polri.
Brigjen Trunoyudo Wisnu Andiko, Head of Public Information at the Polri Public Relations Division, said the suspect designation was made by investigators from the Directorate of Crimes against Women and Children and Human Trafficking after conducting a case review on Wednesday, 22 April.
According to the victims’ legal counsel, Benny Jehadu, Syekh Ahmad Al Misry frequently appeared on television programmes as a judge for Quran memorisation competitions.
The criminal case is said to have claimed more than one victim. The legal counsel explained that all of his clients have suffered profound psychological trauma as a result of the incident.