JAKARTA: Indonesian police held firebrand Islamic cleric Rizieq Shihab for questioning on Saturday on suspicion of breaching coronavirus restrictions by staging several mass gatherings since his return from self-exile last month.
The controversial and politically influential cleric has called for a “moral revolution” since arriving home on Nov. 10, fueling tension with President Joko Widodo’s administration in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country.
Rizieq’s arrest on Saturday came after six members of his Islamic Defender’s Front (FPI) were killed on Monday in a shootout with police investigating the violation of coronavirus protocols as COVID-19 cases and deaths surge.
Rizieq’s lawyer, Aziz Yanuar, who is also an FPI official, said the cleric was arrested after appearing at a police station in the capital Jakarta and that his team would file a motion to seek his release.
The national police said in a statement that Rizieq was being questioned on charges of suspected breaches of coronavirus restrictions and that investigators would decide whether he would be detained.
With a reputation for raiding bars, brothels and violently cracking down on religious minorities, the FPI has gained political clout in the country of 270 million people during recent years.
The president’s administration made no immediate comment on Saturday’s arrest, but hours earlier chief security minister Mahfud MD said on Twitter that the government “had no plans to reconcile” with Rizieq.
In 2016, Rizieq was the figurehead of a mass movement against Jakarta’s former Christian governor, who was jailed on blasphemy charges for insulting Islam.
Rizieq left the country a year later after facing charges – later dropped – over sending pornographic messages and insulting state ideology.
Tens of thousands of his supporters greeted him on his return on Nov. 10, many of them ignoring social distancing and other coronavirus protocols.
A health ministry official said 95 of the people who gathered at the airport had subsequently tested positive for COVID-19.
Indonesia’s daily COVID-19 death toll hit a high of 175 on Friday, bringing the total number of fatalities to 18,650, with more than 611,000 confirmed infections.
(Writing by Stanley Widianto; Editing by Helen Popper and Matthew Tostevin)
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