The retired general was arrested by the National Police on May 20 for allegedly smuggling an M4 Carbine from Aceh and for allegedly giving instructions to besiege the General Elections Commission (KPU) building and the Presidential Palace on May 22, as shown in a viral video.

Lawyer Ferry Firman Nurwahyu rejected allegations that his client was in possession of the rifle, claiming that the Army general had only known about an M16A1, another type of rifle similar to the M4 Carbine, that he had requested to be fixed while he was leading the Iskandar Muda Military Regional Command (Kodam Aceh).

“Kodam Aceh ran an operation to secure rifles collected by civilians. In the operation, they managed to collect two AK47 rifles and an M16A1 rifle. In 2009, Soenarko requested that the M16A1’s broken filler be fixed by Kopassus,” Ferry said.

He added that according to his client, only Kopassus could fix the M16A1 rifle, which bears similarities to the M4 Carbine. He said that Soenarko wanted the rifle to be stored at a Kopassus museum after being fixed, citing the latter’s admiration for the war weapon.

“He made the request by following the procedures 10 years ago. However, the rifle was only claimed to be sent to him [by Kodam Aceh] in 2019, without his knowledge, during the political year. It’s only normal for us to question what’s behind this,” Ferry said.

The lawyer team claimed that Soenarko had never got hold of the rifle before his arrest, and he had only known that the weapon had been sent to him after his arrest.

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