House to hold hearing with maritime officers arrested by Malaysia

The House of Representatives Commission on Defense and Foreign Affairs is planning to hear testimony from three maritime officers who were arrested without legal basis by the Malaysian government earlier this month.

“We will clarify [the incident] with them. We have agreed to hear from the three officers,” Mahfudz Sidik, the commission's chairman, said as quoted by tempointeraktif.com Tuesday.

The commission will also hear about the incident from the Foreign Ministry Tuesday.

The Indonesian government has filed a letter of protest to the Malaysian Embassy in Jakarta, accusing the neighboring country of trespassing into Indonesian territory and violating its sovereignty following the officers’ arrest by Malaysian maritime police in disputed waters near Riau Island province.

The diplomatic note was the ninth protest lodged with Malaysia by Jakarta this year.

Indonesia and Malaysia have ongoing maritime disputes in waters in the Malacca Strait, the South China Sea, the Sulawesi Sea and in the waters north of Bintan and Batam Islands, where the latest incident occurred.