A 25-year-old man, who reportedly disseminated false information regarding the discovery of a suspicious item at Santa Anna Parish Church in Duren Sawit, East Jakarta, on Monday, may face the maximum sanction of life imprisonment, the police have said.

The man, identified as MIA, has been charged under the Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law and Antiterrorism Law, which carries a maximum punishment of 20 years in prison or life imprisonment for the crime he said he committed “for fun”.

According to the police, MIA called the police three times to report finding a suspicious black backpack at the church.

He told the police the backpack was thrown out of a car. 

East Jakarta Police chief Sr. Comr. Tony Surya Putra said the perpetrator pretended to be a church security officer and a police officer while calling the police.

MIA told the police he reported the false information only for fun.

“He didn’t really plan to disseminate the false information,” Tony said on Tuesday as quoted by tempo.co.

The false information was widely circulated on WhatsApp on Monday.

Bomb squad members were deployed only to find that the information was false after finding nothing suspicious on the premises.

MIA was arrested at his house in Tambun, Bekasi, West Java, on Monday, after the police tracked down his phone number. (cal)