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Former lecturer arrested for alleged online hate speech
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Suspected: Muhammadiyah University of Prof. Dr. Hamka lecturer Alfian Tanjung speaks to the press at the Press Council office in Kebon Sirih, Central Jakarta, on March 8.
(kompas.com/Kristian Erdianto)
T
he Jakarta Police arrested Alfian Tanjung, a former lecturer at Jakarta's Muhammadiyah University of Prof. Dr. Hamka (UHAMKA), on Wednesday afternoon for allegedly spreading hate speech on social media.
Alfian was taken by officers from Medaeng prison in Sidoarjo, East Java, to the Police’s Mobile Brigade Command in Depok, West Java, later in the evening.
Alfian was arrested on the same day the Surabaya District Court acquitted him of separate hate speech charges because of legal technicalities. He was previously charged with spreading hate speech during a lecture at the Mujahidin Mosque in Surabaya, East Java, last May.
Jakarta Police special crimes unit head Sr. Comr. Ade Deriyan said on Thursday the police arrested Alfian following a complaint filed by an individual, identified as Taman Nasution, in February. Taman reported Alfian for the latter’s post on his Twitter account earlier this year.
"In his tweet, Alfian claims that 85 percent of Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) members are communists. Taman felt that Alfian's tweet defamed the party to which he belongs," Ade said.
(Read also: Lecturer named hate speech suspect after throwing accusations at Jokowi's inner circle)
The police had previously named Alfian a suspect for alleged accusations he made during a lecture at the Mujahidin Mosque last May. In the lecture, he allegedly accused some PDI-P members and several close confidants of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo of being members of the Indonesian Communist Party.
For Alfian's Twitter post, Ade said the police would charge him under the Electronic Information and Transactions Law. (rdi)
