Indonesian band Radja praise police for swift action following death threats, calls out concert organiser for 'lying'

KUALA LUMPUR, March 14 — Indonesian rock band Radja expressed gratitude towards the Johor police for swift action, following the arrest of two individuals following alleged verbal abuse and death threats made towards the band on Saturday night following their concert there.

Band frontman, Ian Kaseela told Harian Metro that they were grateful for the swift action of the local police force.

"Honestly, the Johor police have our respect. Thank you so much.

"Radja band members are happy with their swift actions. We will be open and willing to further assist with the investigation, InsyaAllah,” he said.

Johor police have since completed their probe into the matter and taken statements from 17 individuals and two suspects over the course of the investigation.

Radja had performed at the Radja Majestic Johor Concert which took place at Larkin Indoor Stadium before the incident on March 11.

Concert organiser Mimosa Events meanwhile, has since released a statement regarding the kerfuffle via the MEE2 Events Instagram page.

In the statement, the unnamed Mimosa Events chief executive officer admitted that the whole incident was due to miscommunication between them and the band and they had a peaceful discussion before the situation began heating up.

"After further investigation on the matter, it was found that the group, Radja, wasn’t aware of the issues pertaining to before and after the concert as all communications between organisers and the band was done via a local manager of the group.

"This has resulted in a mismatch of information which was supposed to be relayed to the band.

"Because of this, we as organisers are sorry for the whole incident and would like to extend our apologies to Radja for everything that has happened,” the statement said.

However, a tweet of a screenshot from the Instagram post circulating online, shows one of the band members, Seno Aji Wibowo, commenting on the post saying that the ‘peaceful discussion’ mentioned was a lie.

MEE2 Events has since disabled the comments on their Instagram page.

Seno took to his own Instagram profile with over 9,000 followers to reshare the statement.

"Why do you need to lie again? We know that you have the power but why do you have to treat us this way when we have accepted your invitation and entertained everyone?

"There’s no need to delete or disable the comment section if you are telling the truth,” read his caption.

Previously, Awani reported that Radja had a miscommunication with the organiser following their Saturday night concert.

They were later visited by two individuals representing the organisers who started to verbally abuse and hurl death threats to the band members.

The issues at the heart of matter include a supposed meet and greet with fans after the concert which Kasela said, they were not informed of.

The band later proceeded to lodge a police report out of fear as some of them had brought along their children for the concert.

Radja has since returned to Indonesia.