Police release 12 alleged NII followers

Police release 12 alleged NII followers

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

West Java Police said here on Tuesday that they had released 12
out of 17 detainees arrested for campaigning for an Islamic
Indonesian State (NII) due to insufficient evidence to hold them
behind bars.

The remaining five were still being detained at West Java
Police Headquarters pending further investigations, the
provincial police's chief of detectives Sr. Comr. Soenaryono
said.

He said that two of the five detainees, identified only by
their initials Y. and H. were leaders of the movement and were
responsible for the recruitment of new members.

The three others were cadres being trained as recruiters, he
added.

Soenaryono said he was unable to determine whether the
suspects were linked with the Al-Zaetun Islamic boarding school
in the West Java town of Indramayu, which parents have accused of
teaching a deviant form of Islam.

The school, led by Abu Toto, is also suspected of serving as
the headquarters of the NII movement.

West Java Police chief Insp. Gen. Sudirman Ail said the 12
movement members had been released on Monday night because there
was not enough evidence with which to charge them.

Those released -- who hailed from Yogyakarta, Jakarta,
Sukabumi in West Java, and Bontang in East Kalimantan -- were
students of various universities and colleges based in Bandung.

"Based on our investigations, they were only victims although
they admitted they were not forced to attend sermons organized by
the suspects. They also confessed that they were never cheated or
blackmailed," Sudirman said.

"So, we don't have any reason to detain them, though it has
been clear that they are members of the NII movement," he added.

Besides, he said there was no legal basis to charge them under
the country's prevailing laws as the antisubversion law had been
repealed several years ago.

"In the past, we could arrest someone intending to establish a
state within the state on subversion charges. But now, how can we
charge them?" Sudirman said.

However, he said the police were still seeking more evidence
to enable them to charge the five suspects following complaints
against them from local people.

"We will also release the five others if there is no strong
evidence that they have violated the Criminal Code," he promised.

The 17 members of NII Region-9 (NII KW-9) had been arrested on
Sunday evening during a raid on a house located at Jl. Sukarajin
III No.18 in Central Bandung.

Central Bandung Police precinct chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Irianto
said the arrests followed a tip-off from neighbors who were
suspicious of people staying there and their guests.

The police also confiscated some evidence, including documents
on the NII's history, vision and mission.

Residents said the house, which is owned by Wartomo, had been
rented by the suspects for about six months with the annual rent
being Rp 6 million.

The NII is the subject of an investigation by the National
Police. Minister of Religious Affairs Said Aqil Munawwar has
vowed to close Al-Zaetun should it be proven to harbor NII
leaders and activists.

Bandar Lampung police also arrested seven people suspected of
being NII members on Jan. 29 after they robbed a gas station in
Sampurnajaya Kalibalangan.

The NII followers claim they are the new generation of the
militant Darul Islam group, whose leader Sekarmaji Marijan
Kartosuwiryo proclaimed the establishment of an NII in 1949.

Kartosuwiryo was executed by the then-president Sukarno's
administration in 1962 after several bloody rebellions in Java,
Sumatra and Sulawesi.