Parliamentary Member Concerned Citizens Fear Reporting Crimes Following Bibi Kelinci Case
JAKARTA — A member of Commission III of the House of Representatives, retired Police Inspector General Rikwanto, has expressed concern that members of the public may become afraid to report crimes to police following the viral case involving Nabilah O’Brien, a social media influencer and owner of the Bibi Kelinci restaurant.
It has been established that before the matter was settled amicably, Nabilah, who was the victim of theft, was instead named as a suspect by the Police Criminal Investigation Unit (Bareskrim) in a defamation case, because she uploaded a recording of the theft to social media.
“I strongly agree that this case should be discontinued, so that the public will also not be afraid to report crimes. It would be absurd if a thief could use the excuse that there was no court decision yet, and then file a counter-report against the victim for spreading a recording of the incident,” said Rikwanto during a hearing session (RDPU) of Commission III with Nabilah on Monday, 9 March 2026.
He explained that one of the functions of surveillance cameras or CCTV is to detect and record theft.
CCTV footage should be able to serve as evidence that should be used for the public interest in apprehending perpetrators of crime.
“The common logic is that local authorities or the public should immediately disseminate news about the theft and what it looks like so that the perpetrator can be caught. It is something that cannot be denied in today’s digital world, where everyone can record themselves as well as their surroundings. So it is not absolute that the presumption of innocence applies in this context, especially for the public interest,” said Rikwanto.
“On behalf of the Golkar Party, I fully agree that this should be resolved properly. Law enforcement must be aligned with the public interest so that society is not hesitant in reporting crimes in their surroundings,” said Rikwanto.
The case began when Zendhy and his wife, ERS, ordered a large quantity of food at Nabilah’s Bibi Kelinci restaurant but refused to pay for it.
On 19 September 2025, Zendhy Kusuma visited the Bibi Kelinci restaurant and ordered 14 menu items to take away, but had to wait for a long time because the restaurant was quite busy.
Zendhy and his wife initially raised verbal protests, but then entered the kitchen area.
One employee even chased them outside the restaurant carrying an electronic payment machine, but was ignored by the pair.
When she received a report about this, Nabilah uploaded a video recording from CCTV to her Instagram account.