Jakarta – The mother of a child who died on Saturday during a charity event at the National Monument (Monas) in Central Jakarta has claimed that she received hush money from a campaign group.
Komariah, the mother of 10-year-old Muhammad Rizki Syahputra, one of the children who died during the event said she received money from Relawan Merah Putih, her lawyer Muhammad Fayyadh said.
"They asked Komariah to not talk about the chronology of the incident to anyone," Muhammad said at the National Police criminal unit office in Central Jakarta on Wednesday as reported by tempo.co.
Fayyadh said two members of Relawan Merah Putih had given Rp 5 million (US$358) in hush money to Komariah and Rp 10 million to the family of Mahesa Junaedi, a 12-year-old who also died during the event.
On Saturday, a group, Forum Untukmu Indonesia, held an entertainment event while giving out free staple food at Monas. Rizki reportedly died after being trampled by a crowd pushing to wait in line for the free food. Mahesa reportedly died of dehydration caused in part by hot weather.
Relawan Merah Putih is a campaign group that supported Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and Jusuf Kalla during the 2014 presidential election and Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama and Djarot Syaiful Hidayat during the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election.
Separately, on Thursday, former Relawan Merah Putih national coordinator and PDI-P politician Charles Honoris reported Twitter account @MunchlistHassan to the police over allegations of slander. The account allegedly accused Charles of having been involved in the Monas event. Charles denied that he had anything to do with the event. (ami)