Lawyer says John Kei not involved in criminal activities

The lawyer of influential gang leader John Refra Kei says his client is not involved in providing shady
debt collection or protection services to businesses in Jakarta.

Attorney Tito Refra, who is also John’s younger brother, said that the arrest of his client was unwarranted.

“People can say whatever they want, but I can assure you that it’s not true. John never had any interest in those types of trades or in setting up those kinds of businesses,” he told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

John Refra is also known as John Kei, a nod to his family’s home on Kei Island, southeast of Maluku.

Tito, however, did not deny that some of the people in the Kei Youth Force (Amkei), a mass organization led by John, might have been involved in debt-collection or protection rackets.

According to Tito, Amkei was established in Jakarta in 1999 amid ongoing turmoil in Maluku to encourage Jakartans from Kei Island not to turn on each other.

The police arrested John on Saturday for his alleged involvement in the murder of PT Sanex Steel Indonesia owner Tan Harry Tantono (Ayung) in a room at the Swiss-Belhotel in Sawah Besar, Central Jakarta, on Jan. 26.

John was shot in the leg for allegedly fleeing from officers and is currently under treatment at Dr. Sukanto Police Hospital in East Jakarta.

Five other men have also been named suspects in Ayung’s murder.

Separately, Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said that officers were looking for 10 men who were spotted at the scene of the crime by CCTV footage.

John’s arrest has raised public concern on the dark side of business in the capital.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has also voiced such concerns, according to his spokesman, saying that thuggery and anarchy should not be tolerated.

“The President said there is no legitimate reason for violence [...] Each case of violence should be legally processed,” Yudhoyono’s spokesman, Julian Aldrin Pasha, said on Tuesday.

According to Rikwanto, the police were having difficulties in eradicating hooligans in Jakarta.

“Hooligans or thugs are just names used by residents. We can’t arrest them if they don’t break the law,” he said.

Meanwhile, Indonesia Police Watch (IPW) coordinator Neta S. Pane criticized John’s arrest. “Deploying around 100 detectives to make a single arrest is already questionable — let alone shooting someone who wasn’t resisting arrest,” Neta told the Post on Tuesday.

He said the police should have been able to make a preliminary assessment of the situation
when they were about to make the arrest. (mim)