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Police killing of FPI members unlawful: Komnas HAM
The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has determined that the killing of four members of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) by police was a human rights violation, and called on the authorities to prosecute the perpetrators.
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Seeking the truth: National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) chairman Ahmad Taufan Damanik (second right) along with Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Fadil Imran (center) speak to journalists at the rights body headquarters in Jakarta on Monday, Dec. 14, 2020. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
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he National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has determined that the killing by police on Dec. 7, 2020, of four members of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) in Kerawang, West Java, was a human rights violation, and called on the authorities to prosecute the perpetrators.
The rights body announced the findings of its investigation into the incident on Friday, saying that six FPI members were killed in two different circumstances. Two of them were killed during a shootout between them and police officers on the Jakarta-Cikampek toll road, while the other four were killed after being held in police custody.
“The shooting of four people at the same time without any attempts to avoid further fatalities indicates that an unlawful killing has taken place,” Muhammad Choirul Anam, the commission member leading the investigation, said.
The independent investigation by Komnas HAM was expected to shed light on the incident amid conflicting statements coming from the police and the Islamist group, which has been facing an intensifying crackdown by the authorities following the return of its leader, Muhammad Rizieq Shihab, from self-imposed exile in Saudi Arabia. On Dec. 30, 2020, the government outlawed the group, claiming that its ideology contravened the state ideology of Pancasila and that some of its members had been implicated in terrorism cases.
The commission has found preliminary evidence challenging both the police and the FPI narratives and called for further investigation into the case.
According to Komnas HAM, the incident started when a group of nine FPI cars, which included Rizieq and his entourage, was followed by police officers when the FPI left the Nature Mutiara housing complex in Sentul, Bogor, West Java, heading to Karawang on the evening of Dec. 6, 2020. Two of the FPI cars, a silver Toyota Avanza and a Chevrolet Spin with six people in each, stayed behind to prevent the tailing police cars from reaching the rest of Rizieq’s entourage.
The two cars were followed by three cars, only two of which have been claimed by the police as theirs. They were later involved in a shootout, in which two FPI members were killed. Komnas HAM claims it had found spent rounds from the weapons allegedly used by the police and the FPI members.
