News, Articles & Reviews

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Jakarta police`s internal affairs department has declared six officers as suspects in its inquiry into alleged police brutality in a recent raid on the Unas (National University) campus in south Jakarta, a spokesman said.

"Based on the results of preliminary questioning by a Propam (Profession and Security) team, six officers have been declared suspects," chief of the National Police Headquaters` public relations division, Inspector General Abubakar Nataprawira, said here Friday.

Police raided the Unas campus on Saturday (May 24) after students demonstrating against fuel oil price hikes in front of the university attacked them with stones and other hard objects. During the raid, police officers reportedly acted violently, prompting a Komnas HAM (National Commission on Human Rights) official later to accuse the police of having violated the students` human rights.

The six suspects - all with the rank of brigadier - were now in the custody of the Jakarta Police`s internal affairs department, Nataprawira told the press at the National Police Headquarters.

He said the six policemen who were members of the South Jakarta police`s mass-action control unit had violated professional rules by beating up students during the raid on the Unas campus.

"This is the result of a preliminary investigation. The possibility that more suspects will be named is not ruled out," he said.

Nataprawira said the Jakarta police`s Propam team had so far questioned 123 officers over the Unas campus incident, including 4 middle-ranking officers (one of them being Senior Commissioner Chairul Anwar, chief of the South Jakarta police office), 8 lower-middle-ranking officers and 111 non-commissioned officers.

Asked why no middle-ranking or lower-middle-ranking officer had so far been named a suspect, Nataprawira said until now investigators had not found any proof that the policemen in the raid on the Unas campus had received orders from their superiors to manhandle students or damage their property.

"So , the law will be applied to the officers concerned as individuals," he said.

Source