Jakarta – National Police chief Gen. Idham Azis appointed former East Java Police chief Insp. Gen M. Fadil Imran as the new Jakarta Police chief on Monday, the same day as the removal of his predecessor Insp. Gen. Nana Sudjana from his position amid a brouhaha centering on the mass gatherings held by the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) over the weekend.
National Police spokesman Insp. Gen Argo Yuwono confirmed the news of Fadil's appointment on Monday as reported by Tribunnews.com.
The decision was stipulated in National Police chief telegram No. ST 3222/XI/Kep/2020, signed by Idham on Monday, on police personnel promotion and demotion. In the letter, Nana was appointed as the police chief's special staffer.
Fadil has had several marked achievements and has held several high-ranking positions from the time he graduated from the Police Academy (Akpol) in 1991.
He received his first high-ranking position in 2008, when he was appointed unit head at the Jakarta Police's general crimes directorate.
In the same year he was promoted to Tanjung Priok Port Police chief. The following year, he was appointed deputy chief of the Jakarta Police's general crimes directorate.
He remained in the position for three years before being appointed as unit head of the general crimes directorate at the National Police's Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim) in 2011.
Shortly after, Fadil was appointed as general crimes director at the Riau Police and in 2013 he returned to the capital city to become West Jakarta Police chief.
In 2015, he was transferred to the National Police headquarters as general crimes policy analyst. But a year later, he was assigned to be the head of the special crimes directorate at the Jakarta Police.
Fadil came to public attention after solving a piracy case involving the movie Warkop DKI: Reborn, which was the most popular movie in 2016, attracting more than 6.8 million cinemagoers. He also handled the alleged sexting scandal case between FPI leader Rizieq Shihab and a woman named Firza Husein. In the investigation spearheaded by Fadil, both Rizieq and Firza were named suspects.
This achievement led him to become the deputy chief of Bareskrim's special crimes directorate at the National Police and later the head of the National police's cybercrime unit in 2017.
During his tenure, he cracked yet another high-profile case, that of the Muslim Cyber Army (MCA) syndicate in 2018.
Members of the syndicate allegedly spread hate speech and fake news reports, from the rise of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) to the persecution of ulema, through various social media platforms in the lead up to the 2019 presidential and regional elections.
The following year, Fadil was appointed as member of the National Police chief's expert team. Shortly after that the 51-year-old was assigned as the East Java Police chief.
On Monday, Idham removed Nana and West Java Police chief Insp. Gen. Rudy Sufahradi Novianti from their positions for their recent failure to "enforce coronavirus health protocols".
Although the National Police did not detail the cases behind the decision, the dismissals followed a series of mass gatherings in and near the capital city centered around the return of the firebrand FPI cleric Rizieq last week. (nal)