FPI chairman arrested upon arrival at airport

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The city police arrested the chairman of the Islam Defender's Front (FPI) radical group, Habib Rizieq Shihab, on Sunday as he arrived at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.

Without any of his lawyers present, Rizieq who had just arrived from Jordan, was arrested by the police, television station SCTV reported.

Police had earlier declared the Muslim cleric a fugitive after he twice ignored a police summons.

The police had planned to present the case files and the firebrand cleric to the Attorney General's Office last Wednesday. However, he ignored the police summonses, and failed to report his whereabouts for the last two weeks.

He reportedly left for Iraq, via Jordan, earlier this month to "wage jihad" against U.S.-led coalition forces. The FPI had previously said it would send its members on a jihad to defend Iraqis against the U.S.

The police had previously detained Rizieq, but then they released him and placed him under house arrest last November, subject to the condition that he reported his whereabouts to the police every Monday and Thursday.

The cleric was charged with involvement in the vandalization over a number of entertainment centers in Jakarta last year during raids by FPI members.

The radical group, which has long been notorious for its attacks on entertainment centers the group claimed were promoting vice, decided last November to indefinitely freeze its activities throughout the country. However, it then decided to reactivate itself last month.