A man in Jakarta’s satellite city of Bekasi was
beaten by an angry mob and burned alive
for allegedly stealing speakers from a
mosque on Wednesday at around 5:30 pm.
The 30-year-old man identified by police by
his initials MA, was seen leaving Musala Al
Hidayah in Bekasi’s Urip Jaya Village with
three speakers.
Accusing him of stealing the speakers from
the mosque, police say people in the area
started chasing MA, who tried to get away
on a motorcycle and even swam across a
river to try and get away from the angry
crowd.
But according to the police, he was
eventually hit by a rock in the head and
suffered a serious injury to his head. He was
quickly set upon by the mob who beat him
and eventually poured gasoline over him.
According to the police, they then set MA on
fire while he was still alive.
“The perpetrator suffered burns to up to 80
percent of his body and died on the spot,”
Bekasi Police Public Relations Head Kunto
Bagus.
A popular Indonesian news Facebook
group, featuring pictures purporting to be
those of MA’s corpse and his attackers
alleges that he was not a thief at all but a
technician who had taken some of the
speakers he was servicing to the mosque
while he prayed.
One of MA’s neighbors claims that the victim
was indeed a service technician who often
prayed at the mosque and doubted he
would have stolen the amplifiers.
However, police have dismissed this
possibility, saying that they had evidence
that MA had in fact stolen the mosque’s
speakers, including testimony from the
mosque caretakers who first noticed that
the amplifiers were missing.
Police say that MA’s family accepted that he
had committed the theft and thus accepted
his horrific fate, refusing to press charges
against any of the attackers and even
refusing an autopsy on his body.
