No fabrication in the case of journalist's death: AGO

The Attorney General's Office (AGO) denied anything had been fabricated in the investigation into the death of Ridwan Salamun, a television journalist who died during a communal clash in Tual, Southeast Maluku.

According to the AGO, the three suspects in the case had been charged under the same article of the Criminal Code, namely Article 170, point two on collective violence resulting in death.

“The killing in Southeast Maluku wasn't murder, but collective action … collective assault. Thus it was a beating by several persons that led to death,” AGO spokesperson Noor Rachmad said Wednesday as quoted by tribunnews.com.

Noor said Ridwan had not been involved in the clash as a journalist but as a resident of one of the clashing neighborhoods.

“Ridwan accompanied a group from his kampung and went to the kampung of the defendants. Ridwan Salamun carried a parang [short sword],” he said.

Noor said that no camera had been found with Ridwan’s body.

The Press Council had protested the prosecutors' sentence demand in the case, saying it was too lenient.

The council claimed Ridwan had been covering the event prior to the assault.