JAKARTA (The Jakarta Post/Asia Pacific Report/Pacific Media Watch): Indonesia’s National Police continue to dig deeper into the Saracen group, an online syndicate accused of creating and spreading hoax news and hate speech for money, including by investigating their funding over the past three years.
“We are still investigating Saracen. We are looking back about three or four years ago to investigate their funding,” said National Police spokesman Rikwanto reports The Jakarta Post quoting kompas.com.
The police have teamed up with the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) to investigate at least 14 bank accounts allegedly used in the Saracen campaign.
“We are still waiting for the results from the PPATK to see what has being going on with the bank accounts, including whether there were flows of funds,” Rikwanto added.
Police have named at least three suspects in the case, individuals who had allegedly acted as the group’s administrators since July and spread hate speech and hoaxes on social media.
The group is believed to have been involved in spreading hoaxes and hate speech against President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and former Jakarta governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, among others.
National police chief General Tito Karnavian previously promised to solve the case and bring all the culprits before the law.
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