Jakarta – The Surabaya Legal Aid Foundation (LBH) says that charging Madiun youth Muhammad Agung Hidayatullah alias MAH in relation to the Bjorka hacker case is premature.
LBH Surabaya and Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) advocacy and network division head Habibus Shalihin is of the view that the police should not be in a rush to declare him a suspect.
"Declaring MAH a suspect because he setup the Bjorkanism Telegram channel and then linking him with the activities of Bjorka who carried out hacks and alleging that he 'helped' [Bjorka], we think that this is still very premature, being pushed through and off the mark", said Shalihin in a written message on Monday September 19.
Shalihin said that the Surabaya LBH is worried that MAH is being charged in order to cover up a wrongful arrest. "If indeed [the police] have not found indications of a criminal act then don't force the case through as if there are problems", he said.
Shalihin warned that making a premature arrest will create more public mistrust in law enforcement agencies and the government. Because of this, Shalihin thinks that the police should just admit it if they have made a mistake in declaring MAH a suspect.
"That would be more honorable than sacrificing the rights of a citizen for the sake of cultivating a good image for the police which is full of falsehoods", he said.
Public defender Hosnan from the East Java Labour and People's LBH meanwhile believes that the grounds used by the police to declare MAH a suspect are unclear.
"The term 'help' used by the police is unclear, does this refer to the stipulations under Article 55 of the KUHP [Criminal Code] or what", he said. "Because under criminal law the terms 'help', 'take part in' and 'ordered to do' can be found under Article 55 of the KUHP", he added.
Hosnan also does not see a correlation between "help" – as the police describe it – and the hacks committed by Bjorka. Police says that MAH helped Bjorka in order to become famous and get lots of money.
"What is the relationship between the hacks carried out by Bjorka, it doesn't connect", he said.
Moreover, according to Hosnan the "pursuit" of the hacker Bjorka will not resolve the problem of private data security in Indonesia which is becoming acute and crucial.
"The government should prioritise private data protection policies rather than hunting down hackers. Because that's what is more urgent today where many transactions are done online and require private documents in the process", he said.
Earlier, police announced that they had declared Hidayatullah – a 21-year-old youth from the East Java city of Madiun – as a suspect for allegedly helping Bjorka setup a Telegram channel. Following this, Bjorka has been silent.
The last time Bjorka tweeted a post on BreachForums was on Thursday September 15 when he posted on the thread "Indonesian Government is Looking for Me?". On the same day Bjorka uploaded a posting making fun of the government's claim that they had identified them on Telegram.
"It's all bullshit. The Indonesian government believes that it has identified me based on misinformation from Dark Tracer, which provided false services to the Indonesian government. Perhaps this kid has been is now under arrest and being interrogated by the Indonesian government. For Dark Tracer, [I say] giving false information to a group of idiots is a sin", he posted. (yla/isn)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "LBH: Penetapan Tersangka Pemuda Madiun Terkait Bjorka Dipaksakan".]
