Buni has been charged with violating Article 28 of the Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law on inciting religious and ethnic hatred online, which carries a maximum sentence of six years in prison for uploading an edited video to make Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama appear as if he had committed blasphemy.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday after a hearing at the South Jakarta District Court following Buni’s pretrial motion to challenge the police’s move, Jakarta Police legal division head Sr. Comr. Agus Rohmat said police investigators decided to name Buni suspect after collecting four pieces of evidences. The law requires that the police should have at least two pieces of evidence before naming a person suspect.

“We named him a suspect after we obtained evidence as stipulated by the Criminal Law Procedures Code (KUHAP)” Agus said.

During the Wednesday hearing, Agus said the four pieces of evidence the police had obtained were: witnesses’ testimonies, expert statements, a number of letters from the suspect and additional clues.

In the opening of his pretrial motion trial on Tuesday, Buni claimed that his status as a suspect in the case was invalid because the police had skipped procedures required by the law in an investigation. For example, Buni, who teaches at a private university in Jakarta, said investigators did not carry out a case reconstruction and immediately moved to naming him suspect.

At Wednesday’s trial, the police, however, insisted they had carried out all procedures, including case reconstruction. (hwa)

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