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.