REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The truth behind the news of ISIS group executing an Indonesian citizen for having spread the AIDS virus could not yet be confirmed or verified, according to the Indonesian foreign ministry.
"We have tried to confirm the news about the Indonesian citizen being executed by ISIS with our embassies in Damascus and Ankara, but it could not yet be verified," foreign ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir noted here on Thursday.
British online media Daily Mail recently reported that an Indonesian citizen was executed by ISIS for allegedly having spread the AIDS virus in the group.
Until now, the Indonesian government is not yet in a position to confirm the news, he affirmed.
Nasir stated that the Indonesian foreign ministry had tried to probe the truth behind the news by contacting its reporter.
"We have also tried to confirm it with its reporter, but no clarification could be made with regard to his/her name or when it happened. So, we cannot as yet clarify it," he emphasized.
According to Nasir, the reporter revealed that he had heard the news from an activist who claimed to have been present at the scene.
"According to the Daily Mail writer, he received the information from an activist in Syria," he said.
The writer however could not confirm if the individual being executed was really an Indonesian citizen, Nasir remarked.
"The essence is that no concrete verification could also be obtained from the media outlet that had reported it. So, we cannot confirm if the incident did occur," he noted.
According to Daily Mail, the Indonesian citizen was known to have spread the AIDS virus after he donated blood to other ISIS members, he added.
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