Jakarta – The police will investigate the source of funding behind a planned riot during the commemoration of International Workers' Day or May Day in front of the House of Representatives (DPR) building in Jakarta.
This is related to the confiscation of cash amounting to 10,961,100 rupiah from one of the people suspected of being the coordinator behind the riot plan.
"This is the amount of money that we managed to secure from the hands of one of the coordinators in the field who based on the information they gave us said that the money would be used or given to those who attended with their group", said Jakarta Metropolitan Regional Police (Polda Metro Jaya) General Crimes Detectives Director Senior Commissioner Iman Imanuddin during a press conference on Friday May 1.
Imanuddin said that currently police are still investigating the source of funding for the riot plan to commemorate May Day, including the question of who the intellectual actor was behind the plan.
"Regarding the intellectual figure of course we will not stop here in conducting an in-depth investigation, because as our colleagues also know and we have already said that there is a certain amount of money circulating among them", he said.
"We will conduct an in-depth investigation into the source of the funding", he continued.
Earlier, the Metro Jaya police arrested 101 people who were suspected of planning to crate riots during the commemoration of May Day in front of the DPR building on Friday.
"Currently 101 people are providing information to us", said Imanuddin at the press conference.
Imanuddin said that the hundreds of people who were arrested ranged in age from 20-35 years and most of them were from outside Jakarta. He also revealed that hundreds of people were detained around the DPR building area.
Imanuddin said that they would be sent home immediately after completing their statements to investigators.
"After [they've] finished providing this information they will immediately be returned to their respective homes. We repeat, after they have finished providing information to us regarding the important things we need, God willing they will immediately be returned to their respective homes", he said. (dis/ins)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Rencana Aksi Rusuh May Day di Jakarta, Polisi Dalami Sumber Pendanaan".]
