The well-connected gangster has attempted to rebrand himself as a political figure in the past year, publicly supporting Prabowo’s presidential bid and using his large group of followers to cash-in on Indonesia’s for-profit protest market. Hercules admitted his violent past in an interview with the Singapore newspaper The Straits Times, bragging of past clashes that were “frequent and bloody,” stating that “the next morning, [it was] common to see dead bodies lying on the road or in the canals.”
But those violent days now are behind him, Hercules said. Gerindra seems to agree. The party’s Secretary General Ahmad Muzani spoke out against Hercules’ arrest, calling the entire ordeal an attempt to distract the public from recent political turmoil.
“This does not make any sense at all,” Ahmad said.
The party promised to foot Hercules’ legal bills following his arrest.