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Five suspects in the deadly attack on an Ahmadiyah community in Cikeusik, Banten, could face trial soon as police have already submitted their dossiers to prosecutors, a police spokesman said on Wednesday.

The five, according to Insp. Gen. Anton Bachrul Alam, are charged under Article 170 of the Criminal Code on assault, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 12 years if the violence results in death. Two of the five are further charged under Article 160 on incitement.

One of the suspects, identified only as M., is the top priority because “he knows how this incident happened in the first place,” Anton said.

A total of nine suspects have been named and 103 witnesses questioned in the Feb. 6 violence, which saw some 1,500 people attack 25 Ahmadiyah members who had refused to leave the house of a local sect leader in Umbulan village, in the Cikeusik subdistrict of Pandeglang. Three of the sect members were killed.

Anton said the dossiers of the four other suspects would be forwarded to prosecutors as soon as possible.

All nine suspects were registered as residents of Cikeusik, but according to an investigation by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), the attackers were outsiders and not locals.

The statement was made by Nur Kholis, deputy chairman of Komnas HAM, at a hearing on Wednesday with members of House of Representatives Commission VIII, which oversees religious affairs. Nur said he had visited the location to interview local officials and victims.

“Next week we will send a team to Banten to meet the district police chief and provincial police chief,” he said, adding that he would also meet with people who allegedly launched the attack.

Komnas HAM chairman Ifdhal Kasim also said they found evidence that human rights had been violated in the police’s inability to prevent the attack .

Nur Kholis added that Komnas HAM would investigate whether on-duty security personnel at the time had actively tried to secure the situation or not.

Activists have accused the National Police of being complicit in the deadly attack, saying the police’s failure to provide the Ahmadis with protection, even though they knew of the threat, signaled that they allowed the attack to occur.

National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Boy Rafli Amar said eight low-ranking officers from the Pandeglang and Ceukesik police precincts had already been brought before the Banten Police ethics council for failing to prevent the attack.

He added that Brig. Gen. Agus Kusnadi, the former Banten Police chief, was replaced in the wake of the violence. Boy said he would be brought before the ethics council at National Police headquarters in Jakarta.

Police officials, including National Police Chief Gen. Timur Pradopo, have suggested that the Ahmadis brought the attack upon themselves.

Timur said local police had been notified a day before the rampage of a possible attack on Ismail Suparman, an Ahmadiyah elder in the village, and had taken him into protective custody. The subsequent attack, Timur went on, occurred after an Ahmadiyah member occupied Ismail’s house in a bid to defy the mob. “That’s why the mob got out of control,” the police chief said.

 

Additional reporting from Antara