Indonesia: Jusuf Kalla denies helping to return Rizieq Shihab to Indonesia

Former Vice President Ri Jusuf Kalla has denied helping to return the leader of the Islamic Defenders Front ( FPI ) Rizieq Shihab from Saudi Arabia to Indonesia. This was conveyed by Kalla to refute the issue that had emerged in cyberspace which said he helped Rizieq's return to Indonesia to smooth the political steps of DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan in the 2024 presidential election. The accusation arose because Kalla visited Saudi Arabia not long before Rizieq's return to Indonesia. The PMI chairman admitted to Saudi Arabia to sign the cooperation for the construction of the Rasulullah Muhammad SAW Museum.

Kalla in an exclusive interview with the Chief Editor of News One Claudius Boekan on the YouTube channel Berita Satu, Friday (4/12/2020) said, I mean going to Mecca is just worship. Coming home from the Vatican. Apart from stopping in Riyadh to sign, we were even accused of all kinds of worship.

Kalla then denied the accusation that he had brought large amounts of cash to pay for Rizieq's various needs to return to Indonesia.

Kalla said, it was absurd that someone could carry large amounts of cash and not be caught by the Immigration officer. This is because almost every Immigration in all countries requires airplane passengers to declare their luggage which has high economic value. If someone carries large amounts of cash without a clear purpose then Immigration will be suspected of being an attempt at money laundering.

The Chairman of the Indonesian Mosque Council said, so it doesn't make sense. People nowadays don't use suitcases anymore.

Previously it was reported that Kalla was rumored online that he was involved in returning Rizieq from Saudi Arabia to Indonesia. The issue of Kalla helping Rizieq's return came after former Democratic Party cadre Ferdinand Hutahaean and social observer Rudi S Kamri mentioned that someone with the figure of Chaplin brought luggage to Saudi Arabia to smooth political interests in 2022 and 2024. Even though they did not mention Kalla's figure directly, netizens associated the figure referred to as Ferdinand and Rudi as Jusuf Kalla. Kalla's name became a trending topic on Twitter and was accused of being behind Rizieq's return to Indonesia.

As a result, Kalla's daughter, Muswirah Kalla, also reported Ferdinand and Rudi on Thursday (3/12/2020) to Bareskrim Polri. One of the evidence was Ferdinand 's tweeted, that's great, the caplin, bring money for a suitcase to Arabia, pay for this, that's all right. The political agenda for 2022 towards 2024 was heated earlier. It seems that the president will be very preoccupied with the noise of caplin engineering for the sake of his golden son, the crazy bus owner. Ferdinand and Rudi were reported by referring to Article 45 paragraph 3 in conjunction with Article 27 paragraph 3 of Law Number 19 of 2016 concerning Amendments to Law Number 11 of 2008 concerning Electronic Information and Transactions (UU ITE) and / or Article 310 of the Criminal Code and / or Article 311 of the Criminal Code.