Surabaya – The East Java Regional Police and its officers have confiscated 11 books from protesters involved in demonstrations that turned violent in Surabaya and Sidoarjo on August 29-31.
Several of these books have been linked to the riots that occurred during the wave of demonstrations in Indonesia last August, including several areas in East Java.
East Java Regional Police (Polda Jatim) Criminal Investigation Director (Dirreskrimum) Senior Commissioner Widi Atmoko said that the issue began when there was vandalism and an attack on officers at the Waru police post in Sidoarjo on Saturday morning August 30.
Following the incident, police subsequently arrested 18 people suspected of assaulting officers. They included eight adults and 10 minors or children who are facing legal proceedings (ABH).
One of them was a suspect with the initial GLM (24) from Surabaya. During their investigation, police claimed to have found several books related to anarchism at their home, which they confiscated as evidence.
"Then, from this arrest it developed and it turned out that the suspect, GLM (24), at the time when we conducted the raid, was found them reading books yes, books that contained anarchist ideas", said Atmoko during a press conference at the East Java Regional Police Headquarters in Surabaya on Thursday September 18.
According to CNN Indonesia's monitoring, the books confiscated by the police and displayed at the press conference included "Anarchism and Other Essays", a collection of essays by Emma Goldman, "What is Communist Anarchism" by Alexander Berkman, "Karl Marx" by Franz Magnis-Suseno, "The Dictators" by Jules Archer and "Guerrilla Warfare" by Che Guevara.
When asked why the books were confiscated and used as evidence, Atmoko said the police consider that the reading material could have an influence on a person's perspectives and actions. "To delve into whether yes, these book influence a person's perspective, leading to anarchic actions", he claimed.
Atmoko believes that it is important to look into the books read by the suspects to find the motives, patterns and events of the riots caused by certain people.
"These in-depth investigations are important because we want to establish the motives, patterns and connections to the riots the other day. That's why we're confiscating them (the books). So everything that has a relationship with the criminal acts or criminal behaviour we will use [to solve the] crime, yes", he said.
He also explained that several types of evidence are needed to uncover a suspected crime. The first is direct evidence, while the second is circumstantial evidence that will reveal other facts.
"Some material evidence was directly used to commit the crime, while others will be able to reveal the pattern of the networks and background of the perpetrators who committed the crime", he said.
Vandalism of the Waru police post
Meanwhile, in the case of the vandalism of the Waru police post in Sidoarjo and the attack on officers, police initially arrested 40 people comprising 12 adults and 28 children. Of that number, 22 people were sent home and 18 were named as suspects.
"The mob also attacked officers at the Waru police post, resulting in a member of the Sidoarjo police officers suffering head injuries", said Atmoko.
Of the 18 people, eight are adults while the remaining 10 are children who are facing legal proceedings.
The perpetrators each played a role in attacking the officers with stones, damaging the Waru police post and stealing the officers' shields.
The initials of the eight adult perpetrators are MAN (18), BZ (21), AY (21), RAS (21), SBA (21) and GS (21) who are residents of Sidoarjo and EPS (22) and GLM (24) who are residents of Surabaya.
In the cases of vandalism and assault, the suspects were charged under Article 170 of the Criminal Code (KUHP) which carries a maximum sentence of five years and six months in prison. (frd/kid)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Usut Aksi Rusuh Surabaya-Sidoarjo, Polda Jatim Sita 11 Buku".]
