Militant slapped with vandalism charges

Militant slapped with vandalism charges

Blontank Poer, The Jakarta Post, Sukoharjo

Police officers declared the leader of a Muslim militant group a
suspect on Thursday, three days after he led a mob attack on
restaurants selling alcoholic drinks.

The rare arrest of a religious vigilante leader could be a
sign that the police are starting to lose patience with the
militant groups and their violent raids on nightclubs and
restaurants, particularly during Ramadhan.

Adj. Comr. Muhammad Ngajib, a police detective investigating
the attack, confirmed that Cholid Syaifullah had been questioned
and named a suspect.

Cholid, one of the leaders of the Coalition of the Surakarta
Muslim Community, was charged with violating Criminal Code and
instigating and leading the attack. If he is found guilty, he
could get a maximum sentence of seven years in prison.

Cholid and his crew attacked restaurants on Jl. Langenharjo in
Surakarta city on Monday night. At least four people were injured
and two restaurants were damaged in the attack.

Contacted separately, Cholid admitted to being confused by the
charges against him. He insisted that he could not possibly be
guilty because by raiding restaurants, he was helping the police
department by reducing the distribution of alcohol during
Ramadhan.

Although the attack was carried out by a group of at least 50
young men, Cholid was the only person named a suspect. Awod,
another of the leaders in the raid, has confirmed that he, a man
named Umar and Cholid had been questioned by the police after the
attack, but only Cholid was detained and declared a suspect.

Despite the arrest, the extremists were adamant about
continuing the raids on alcohol sellers during Ramadhan.

"We are not deterred by the police force's uncompromising
posture," declared Awod.

The arrest of the hard-line Muslim leader comes after the
arrest of eight rank-and-file members of the Islam Defenders
Front (FPI) on Tuesday. They were arrested for weapons possession
as they protested in front of the police headquarters in West
Jakarta.

The series of arrests by the police could be evidence that
they had decided to get tough on the vigilante groups, who
regularly take the law into their own hands -- often violently.
Over the last several years, similar hard-line raids were carried
out but they never led to any arrests, prompting the public to
accuse the police of ignoring their crimes.