Medan police release two editors
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan
Medan police officials in North Sumatra announced on Monday that they have freed two editors of a Jakarta Islamic weekly tabloid who were arrested for an article claiming that private noodle firm PT Olagafood produced food tainted with pork.
The tabloid's chief editor Muhammad Syarif Haris and managing editor Rasil Karti Wibowo, were allowed to return home to Jakarta on Saturday after 24 hours of interrogations in Medan.
"We released the two because there was not enough evidence to charge and detain them," Medan Police Chief Sr. Comr. Badrodin Haiti told The Jakarta Post by phone.
But he promised to take both men of the Tabloid Jurnal Islam to court once more evidence against them can be obtained.
Badrodin said that his office has summoned seven people, including employees of Olagafood and local community members, for questioning in the case.
The suspects were arrested on Friday on charges of spreading news calculated to cause public disorder.
The "disturbing" article in question was published in the tabloid's Jan. 25-Jan. 31 edition, entitled "Alhami fools the Islamic community, Alhami products contain pork fat."
Medan-based Olagafood, which produces Alhami -- an instant noodle product -- flatly rejected the report and filed a complaint against the tabloid with local police on Jan. 25.
The company's lawyer, Refman Basri, said on Monday that his client could press on legal action against the tabloid, despite the release of the two suspects.
He said that he would not relent in making a case against the tabloid, which he accused of slandering Olagafood.
"We will go ahead with this case until a criminal court verdict is issued. After that, we will prosecute a civil case against them," Refman added.
On Saturday, thousands of Olagafood workers demonstrated in front of Medan Police Headquarters and the office of the provincial branch of the Indonesian Journalists' Association (PWI) in support for the investigation.
The protesters condemned the tabloid for the article, which they claimed was baseless, and backed the police move to detain the two editors.
Islam prohibits its followers from eating pork or any by- products derived from pork.
Food additives producer PT Ajinomoto Indonesia was forced to withdraw all its products from the market in January 2001 after the MUI's Food and Drug Analysis Institute (LPPOM) found evidence that, since October 2000, the company had been using substances derived from pigs in its production process.
The then-president, Abdurrahman Wahid, intervened to ease the heightening controversy over the case by declaring that Ajinomoto products were halal (permitted to be consumed by Muslims).