Police in Jakarta have reportedly detained a former US citizen named Jerry Duane Gray after he appeared in a YouTube video in which he accused President Joko Widodo’s government of being infiltrated by communists and called for opposition leader Prabowo Subianto to be made president.
He was arrested about 9.30 am Tuesday at his residence in West Jakarta. He was not handcuffed and did not resist arrest. Police said Gray, a former US Air Force member, told them he had become a naturalized Indonesian citizen in 2010. Police were checking his nationality status with immigration authorities.
Gray has appeared in several lengthy YouTube videos, in which he speaks in Indonesian at Islam-themed seminars. He has criticized “liberal” Islam and claimed the 2001 terror attacks on the World Trade Center in New York were not masterminded by Osama bin Laden but by then-US leader George W. Bush.