“The decision will be read out at 2 p.m. on Wednesday,” the court’s lone judge Sutiyono said during a trial on Monday.  

Buni filed the pretrial hearing request with the South Jakarta District Court on Dec. 5 to challenge the Jakarta Police’s decision to name him a suspect for allegedly inciting hatred with his Facebook post containing footage of Ahok’s speech, which went viral in October.

The police claim Buni’s post aimed to incite hatred because he posted it with an accompanying text that was not an accurate transcript of what Ahok stated in the video.

Buni says he has been unfairly targeted and argues that the police’s charges are invalid because they did not follow proper procedures, such as holding a crime reconstruction, before they named him a suspect.

Buni said failing to hold a crime reconstruction was a violation of the Criminal Law Procedures Code (KUHAP) and the National Police chief regulation (Perkap) on investigation procedures.

Responding to the claim, the police said they had conducted a crime reconstruction prior to naming Buni a suspect. The police say they did not involve Buni in the crime reconstruction because Perkap No.14/2012 did not regulate who was obligated to take part in a crime reconstruction. (ebf)

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