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North Sumatra anti-corruption activist injured in airsoft gun attack
Jakarta Globe - February 16, 2015
Muchtar Efendy, secretary of the North Sumatra People's Fight Against Corruption Movement (Gebraksu), a local NGO, was shot near the house of a colleague. He is being treated at Delima Hospital in Martubung, North Sumatra, after suffering injuries to his arm, thigh and leg.
"After the shooting, we found eight airsoft gun pellets," 41-year-old Muchtar said at the hospital on Sunday. "There were four [attackers] and they just drove off fast after they saw me slumping. I don't know any of them."
Muchtar said his attackers opened fire when he was leaving his colleague's house at the Permata Hijau residential complex in Martubung at around 1:30 a.m. local time, with his friends.
Four people on motorbikes approached the group and started shooting. "I thought they wanted to ask directions, but then they started firing," Muchtar said. "I tried to run but eventually I got hit."
Muchtar claimed that the attack must have something to do with his involvement in Gebraksu's antigraft activities. The organization is currently overseeing investigations into three alleged graft cases in Medan and Langkat district, also in North Sumatra.
"Our activities must have made some people angry and they must have ordered someone to attack me," Muchtar said. The activist added that his wife intended to submit a report to Medan Police.
Medan Police chief Sr. Comr. Nico Afinta said police would investigate the shooting, but noted that it was unclear if the attack was indeed motivated by Muchtar's activist involvement with Gebraksu.
This is the second attack this year against an anti-corruption activist, after two gunmen in Bangkalan, Madura, in East Java, shot Mathur Husairi on Jan. 20.
Mathur, 47, is the director of the local organization Islamic Center for Democracy, and was treated for injuries at Soetomo General Hospital in Surabaya, East Java.
The activist was discharged and given permission to return home to Bangkalan, where he will continue receiving treatment as an outpatient.
Aldi Alfarisi, who heads a commission at the Bangkalan City Council, was arrested along with three other men for their alleged involvement. Police said the "commission head of the city council is the mastermind behind the shooting."
The remaining suspects were identified as Reza, 27, and Sadi, 43, who are believed to have been the attackers, and Mas'ud, 40, the owner of the homemade pistol allegedly used in the assault.
Police said the gunmen appeared to have been waiting for him. As Mathur stepped out of his car to open his garage door, a motorcycle with two people on it drove up to his car and the person riding pillion fired at Mathur, Awi said. The gunmen then fled the scene.
Mathur was taken to a nearby hospital, but due to the severity of his injuries, was transferred to a better-equipped facility in Surabaya. The activist's condition improved after doctors performed surgery to remove the projectile lodged in his stomach.
Mathur had been tipping off the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) about corruption cases plaguing his home district of Bangkalan.
In December, the KPK arrested Fuad Amin Imron, the speaker of the Bangkalan district legislature, for allegedly taking a kickback from an energy company in connection with a natural gas concession in the area. The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) expressed fears that antigraft activists across the archipelago have been facing increasing threat in recent months.
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