Following news that Indonesia’s anti-graft agency raided the home of former West Java governor Ridwan Kamil, footage surfaced in posts that falsely claimed it depicts his arrest. But the clip shows another politician while no official report indicates Ridwan has been taken to jail as of March 26, 2025.
“Ridwan Kamil arrested,” reads the Indonesian-language caption to a Facebook video that has garnered over 54,000 views since it was posted March 17. It shows officials escorting a handcuffed man wearing a face mask.
“Drag them all along so they end up in prison together,” says text overlaid on the clip.
The Jakarta Globe newspaper reported authorities searched Ridwan’s residence on March 10 as part of an anti-graft probe (archived link).
According to the publication, Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) is investigating allegations of inflated advertising budgets in state-owned regional Bank BJB from 2021 to 2023 when Ridwan was West Java governor.
The agency has designated five individuals as suspects in the case which does not include Ridwan, according to a press release that an AFP journalist saw.
Screenshot of the false post taken on March 24, 2025
Similar Facebook posts have also misidentified the man in the clip as Ridwan, but there have been no official reports he was recently arrested as part of the anti-graft probe.
“There is no such activity as the video described,” KPK spokesman Tessa Mahardika told AFP on March 24.
Moreover, a reverse image search of the video’s keyframes on Google found it corresponds to a picture in a report from state news agency Antara on March 11 (archived link).
Antara identified the arrested man as Bachtiar, a member of the Regional House of Representatives in South Sumatra province. The politician, who goes by one name, is allegedly involved in a corruption case linked to a palm oil plantation in the province, the report says.
Screenshot comparison of the false post (L) and Antara’s photo
A keyword search also found a news report from Kompas TV showing the arrest from a different angle. The video’s 23-second mark shows Bachtiar with his face mask down (archived link).
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