Dark Nights || Eight anarchist detainees from the “Chaos Star” case have undergone their first court on 18 November 2025. This means they have now been transferred to the prosecutor’s detention facility. They are accused of throwing stones at police officers, allegedly causing around Rp 2 billion in damages during the 30 August 2025 demonstration.
All eight have been charged with multiple articles: Article 170 (violence in public), Article 214 (collective resistance), and Article 406 (destruction of another person’s property) of the Indonesian Criminal Code. They are:
• Muhamad Subhan (M.S)
• Eli Yana (E.Y)
• Muhamad Vansa Alfarisi (M.V.A)
• Muhamad Rifa Aditya (M.R.A)
• Veri Kurniawan Kusuma (V.K.K)
• Joy Erlando Pandiangan (J.E.P)
• Muhamad Jalaludin Mukhlis (M.J.M)
• Jatnika Alang Ramdani Septiawan (J.A.R.S)
All eight were tortured to force them into confessing to the alleged offenses. The Indonesian state is attempting to shift blame for civil unrest onto anarchists with the age-old pretense that no one can have a legitimate beef with positively sacred social and class hierarchies, personal boundaries not so much. The peasants are just revolting because we don’t know civilised order when we see it and need to be saved from ourselves by a political class of bought, corrupt grifters on the take.
“Chaos Star” sounds legit as a name any anarchist would choose for ourselves straight off the bat; if there’s nothing we like more, it’s pandering to authoritarian stereotypes. Indeed, if anything. as researchers at the University of Melbourne observe,
While the protests were, in the most part, authentic and spontaneous public events, the violence that ensued appears to be orchestrated – or at least manipulated – by powerful factions of the oligarchic elite.
This is indicated by the fact that the riots and looting took place with little interference from Indonesian Military (TNI) members at the scene. This is reminiscent of orchestrated riots in 1998 that led to the downfall of former president Soeharto and the collapse of his New Order.
In the Kwitang area near the police’s Mobile Brigade headquarters in Jakarta, some men wearing military uniforms were even filmed handing banknotes to the crowd, a rare act aimed at garnering public sympathy. The police, meanwhile, appeared lethargic in responding to the looting and were absent from any recorded footage of the events.
The weak security response to the riots in Jakarta, with the military appearing far more sympathetic to the public than the police, raises questions about the underlying circumstances at play.
Not projecting but.
Send solidarity post to the anarchist detainees, English language or Bahasa Indonesian:
[Name]
JI. Jakarta No.42-44,
Kebonwaru, Kec. Batununggal,
Kota Bandung, Jawa Barat
Indonesia
Palang Hitam/Anarchist Black Cross: We urgently need financial solidarity to continue prisoner support activities and to secure commerical lawyers for the defendants. Please contact Dark Nights or recognised long-running ABC groups to donate.
Discover more from Class Autonomy
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
