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Indonesian police have arrested seven suspects in connection with online threats against Pope Francis during his visit to the Muslim-majority country.
The suspects were planning terrorist activities targeting the Pope and other Catholic figures. The arrests were part of an ongoing investigation into extremist activities in Indonesia.
National Police’s Special Detachment spokesman, Colonel Aswin Siregar, said the arrests were made between 2 and 5 September. They came after a thorough online investigation that tracked the suspects’ digital footprints.
“We have a mechanism to monitor and filter. We had tip-off information from members of the public” Siregar said.
The suspects, believed to be linked to the Islamic State (ISIS), had been using social media to spread messages promoting violence. They are accused of posting statements and images online that threatened bomb attacks on the pope’s public meetings in Jakarta.
Colonel Siregar said the threats against Pope Francis included a plan to disrupt security protocols and commit suicide bombings.
“I will blow myself up” one suspect posted on social media. Another posted on TikTok his plans “to gun down Francis”.
Motives being probed
Siregar said the police are probing “the motives” of all those who have been apprehended. He added that, even though intended as jokes, threats can be subject to punishment under a law dealing with terrorism.
Indonesian authorities said the suspects monitored the Pope’s schedule and movements. While no evidence suggests an immediate plan, their social media activity indicated intentions to harm the Pope.
One source told The Straits Times the terrorists were angry about Pope Francis’s visit to Jakarta’s Istiqlal mosque. They were also incensed at the government’s appeal to television stations to refrain from the usual broadcasting of the Islamic call to prayer while the live broadcast of Pope Francis’s visit was in session.
Call for tolerance
On 5 September Pope Francis met with the Grand Imam of Istiqlal Mosque. They signed a declaration calling for tolerance and issued a series of appeals based on their respective religious teachings, the first of which was to promote their religious traditions “in order to defeat the culture of violence and indifference afflicting our world”.
“Indeed, religious values should be directed towards promoting a culture of respect, dignity, compassion, reconciliation and fraternal solidarity in order to overcome both dehumanisation and environmental destruction” they said.
Sources
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News category: World.
