Apriadi Gunawan, Medan, North Sumatra – Police have nabbed a man for allegedly defaming Batak people, one of North Sumatra's ethnic groups, on social media following a tense gubernatorial election.
North Sumatra Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Tatan Dirsan Atmaja said the suspect, Faisal, was arrested on Friday at his in-laws' house in Deli Serdang regency after he went on the run a few weeks earlier.
"We are still processing the documents. The suspect will be handed over to prosecutors," Tatan told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
Manganar Situmorang, a board member of Batak association Parsadaan Poparan Raja Lontung, reported Faisal for insulting the ethnic group through social media posts that allegedly violated the Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law.
His posts concerned the defeat of gubernatorial candidate pair Djarot Saiful Hidayat and Sihar Sitorus, known as "Djoss". "Batak people, eat that s***...," read one of the postings, using the vulgar slang term for feces. Djarot is Javanese while Sihar is Batak.
Edy Rahmayadi, a retired army general and a Malay of the royal Deli house, and his running mate Musa Rajekshah, also a Melayu Deli, won the North Sumatra election.