Police drop porn case against cleric Rizieq
JAKARTA: The police have terminated their investigation into a pornography case allegedly involving firebrand cleric Rizieq Shihab, citing a lack of evidence.
The Islam Defenders Front (FPI) leader was allegedly involved in steamy WhatsApp conversations with a female follower.
The chats, which included some nude pictures, were uploaded to the website baladacintarizieq.com.
The police have yet to find the owner of the now-defunct website, though some of the materials could still be found elsewhere on the web.
“After conducting a case screen- ing, investigators decided to drop the case because we could not find the uploader (of the chats),” National Police spokesman Brig Gen Muhammad Iqbal told The Jakarta Post yesterday.
Police charged Rizieq with violating the 2008 Pornography Law in May 2017, by which time Rizieq had fled to Saudi Arabia and refused to return to Indonesia, despite several police summonses.
Iqbal said the police’s decision to drop the case was made after Rizieq’s lawyer Kapitra Ampera requested that his client’s case be reviewed.
He confirmed that the police as of now had no sufficient evidence to continue their investigation, but added that “the case can be re-opened if we find new evidence”.
Rizieq, who spearheaded the 2016 sectarian rallies that led to the incar-
ceration of former Jakarta governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama for blasphemy last year, has said he believed his case was politically motivated. — The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network