Nabiila Azzahra, Linda Trianita – Protesters who took part in International Labour Day or May Day rallies earlier this year are now being intimidated by unknown individuals.
The intimidation has targeted 14 protesters who were arrested and later named suspects by the Metro Jaya Jakarta Regional Police (Polda Metro Jaya) following a labour demonstration in front of the parliament building on in Central Jakarta on May 1.
The forms of intimidation they have suffered have been varied, ranging from digital attacks to abductions accompanied by violence. They also reported being stalked and finding dead rats on motorcycle dashboards.
The first incident was a burglary on June 20. According to their accounts, the burglary occurred at the residence of one of the protesters. No valuables were lost, but the perpetrator left the room in disarray.
"So, someone did indeed come in, as if looking for something, and then left it in a mess", said Teguh Aprianto, one of the protesters and the founder of Indonesian Ethical Hackers during a press conference at the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) building in Central Jakarta on Tuesday August 5.
Following this, the digital attacks began. Several protesters received spam calls from numerous unknown numbers. They also experienced attempts to take over their WhatsApp accounts.
According to Aprianto, this happened repeatedly, every day at 1 am in the morning. "So every morning at 1 am, there's always an attempt to take over WhatsApp accounts", he said.
After these incidents, the protesters decided to live together in the Depok area. They also tried not to be alone when going somewhere.
Then, at their residence, someone allegedly left a dead rat on their motorcycle. "The next morning, before we left, they left a dead rat on the dashboard", said Cho Yong Gi, a University of Indonesia (UI) student and one of the protesters.
According to Yong Gi, an unknown person was standing in front of their residence when the rat carcass was found. "They just turned up, waited, looked, and then left", he said.
The intimidation culminated on July 30 when one of the protesters was allegedly kidnapped by five unknown people wearing balaclavas. They were held captive in a black Xenia car.
According to Yong Gi, at the time of the abduction there were two cars parked in the middle of the road: one black and one white. The victim's friends claimed to have seen both cars after the victim was released.
"This car was very suspicious, because it was parked in the middle of a main road. There were several men standing in the middle, watching", he said.
Initially, the victim (who has not been identified) was hit while riding a motorcycle at dawn. They were then taken into a car. According to their account, they was interrogated and tortured by the unknown individuals. The abduction lasted around 40 minutes.
Aprianto said the victim was burned with cigarette butts during the interrogation. "When the perpetrator didn't get the desired answer (to their questions), the victim was burned with a cigarette butt on the cheek", he said.
According to the protester's account, the perpetrators asked about the May Day demonstration. They showed them photos of the protesters and asked if the victim recognised them. "They asked who this is, who this is, whether they knew them", said Aprianto.
The victim was also allegedly subjected to a forced search. When they returned to their shared residence in Depok, their identity card was missing. The victim's friends discovered about the incident after observing CCTV footage connected to a personal device, then listening to the victim's screams.
"The victim immediately fled and returned to the apartment. We only received notification when the victim tried to contact us via one of the communication devices", said Aprianto.
The 14 May Day protesters were named suspects in May. After being arrested by police, they were questioned for hours and hours at the Jakarta Metro Jaya Police Headquarters. Cho Yong Gi was examined while ill and subsequently had to be rushed to the hospital.
The Advocacy Team for Democracy (TAUD), which has been providing assistance to the protesters, has called this a case of criminalisation.
TAUD has reported several police officers from the Metro Jaya and the Central Jakarta District Police (Polres) who were on guard at the May Day demonstration to the Indonesian National Police Headquarters (Mabes Polri). Theyfiled four criminal reports and one ethical code violation report on June 16.
The reports filed by TAUD are based on allegations of violence committed by police against demonstrators. Furthermore, TAUD claims the police violated the criminal procedural code (KUHAP) in their investigation and prosecution of the 14 who were named as suspects.
On June 19, the National Police Headquarters Criminal Investigations Directorate (Bareskrim) handed the reports over to the Jakarta Regional Police. The police are still processing the reports.
- A statement by the Advocacy Team for Democracy in Bahasa Indonesia is available at: https://www.amnesty.id/kabar-terbaru/siaran-pers/taud-intimidasi-berlanjut-dan-pelimpahan-laporan-peserta-aksi-may-day-2025-oleh-mabes-polri/08/2025/
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Massa Aksi Hari Buruh Mengalami Intimidasi: Serangan Digital hingga Penculikan".]
