No legal basis to charge NII followers: Police

The West Java Regional Police released on Wednesday the remaining five followers of the Negara Islam Indonesia (NII), suspected of planning to establish an Islamic state in the country, as they could not find a legal basis on which to charge them.

"We cannot charge them with planning to establish an Islamic state as the Subversion law was revoked several years ago. We also cannot charge them with a violation of the Criminal Code as they did not commit any crime," chief of detectives of the West Java Police Sr. Comr. Soenaryono told the media on Wednesday.

The remaining five followers had been detained at the police headquarters on Tuesday pending further investigations, after 12 others were released due to insufficient evidence to hold them behind bars.

Soenaryono noted, however, that the five NII followers were subject to a requirement to report to the police every two weeks.

With the release of the five followers, all 17 arrested by the police last Sunday have now been released, as there has been no legal basis on which to charge them.

But their release has annoyed a number of people, particularly parents who said their children, studying in Al Zaetun boarding school, which reportedly harbors the NII movement, had been brainwashed by the movement.

The parents, united under the Forum for Victims of NII, said their children had been asked not to pray before an Islamic state was set up and had to make a financial donation to the movement by whatever means, including stealing and robbing.

The Forum head, Krisman Saleh, said that they had long been facing problems but there had been no explanation from the government. "Now they arrested the followers and they have evidence but they have just released them," he said.

He said that the Indonesian Council of Ulemas (MUI) should issue a fatwa (official opinion) to state whether the NII and the Al Zaetun school had deviated from the teaching of Islam.

The police could arrest them, using MUI's fatwa as one of its legal arguments, he said.

But the police argued that they had found it difficult to find evidence, as all the parents who had reported the NII followers' action to the police had produced statements saying, "someone said", and without first-hand information on the NII's activities.

"They always said 'someone said that...', 'someone told me that...'. How could we process the case properly if they only said that someone said...?" Soenaryono asked.

But West Java Regional Police chief, Insp. Gen. Sudirman Ail urged the parents to be patient as they would continue to investigate the NII case. --JP