FPI apologizes for 'kidnapping' chief

JAKARTA: The Islam Defenders' Front (FPI) said they were sorry for "kidnapping" chief Habib Rizieq Shihab from the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office on Monday, saying it was not planned beforehand and was done without the knowledge of his legal team.

FPI secretary-general Ahmad Shabri Lubis in his letter to the Attorney General on Tuesday said the incident was spontaneous and a reflection of the FPI supporters' disappointment with the police force whom he said had framed Rizieq.

In the letter, received by the Attorney General's Office on Wednesday, Lubis also asked the prosecutors to consider Rizieq's request to release him from detention, according to the office's spokesman Antasari Azhar.

Rizieq, who is being held at the Salemba detention center in Central Jakarta, is a suspect in a string of FPI attacks on entertainment spots and faces a maximum sentence of seven years in jail.

Head of the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office, Muljohardjo, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that the prosecutors would not process the request and instead would soon submit the case to court.

"The case would be delegated tomorrow (Thursday) to the Central Jakarta Prosecutor's Office who will later submit it to the Central Jakarta District Court," he added.-- JP