T

he death of a key witness in a major drug case, Jerry Jordan Tuankotta, while being detained at Cipinang Narcotics Penitentiary in East Jakarta raised suspicions that his death was not a result of natural causes, as claimed by the prison wardens.

Jerry, who is said to have testified on a case implicating drug lord Freddy Budiman, reportedly died after falling ill on Tuesday. Prior to Jerry's death another Cipinang inmate, identified as AA, also died on Sunday.

National Police criminal investigations chief Comr. Gen. Sutarman said on Thursday that he had coordinated with Law and Human Rights Minister Amir Syamsuddin to conduct an autopsy on the inmates' remains.

'We only received the report recently. Thus, the families have taken the remains for an autopsy. To know the cause of death, an autopsy must be conducted,' he said after a meeting in South Jakarta.

The police may face challenges in conducting Jerry's post-mortem examination as his family has transported the remains to his hometown in Ambon, South Maluku, for burial.

Separately, the ministry's penitentiary director general, Bambang Krisbanu, claimed that Jerry was suffering from drug withdrawal symptoms, which led to his death, while AA had HIV.

Bambang added that Jerry was not a key witness in Freddy's case. 'He had nothing to do with Freddy,' he said as quoted by tempo.co

Cipinang chief warden Muhammad Ali Syeh Banna did not return calls and text messages from The Jakarta Post for confirmation on Jerry's condition prior to his death.

Jerry reportedly served as a witness against Freddy over the latter's role in attempting to smuggle 1.4 million ecstasy pills from China and 400,000 ecstasy pills from the Netherlands.

The West Jakarta District Court sentenced Freddy to death on July 15 for the attempt to smuggle a total of 1.8 million ecstasy pills ' which is widely considered the country's biggest drug case in the last 10 years.

Freddy enjoyed special facilities and privileges while being incarcerated at Cipinang Penitentiary.

In July, adult magazine model Vanny Rosyanne said that she was allowed to make a conjugal visit
to Freddy Budiman. Vanny also admitted that Freddy paid Rp 50 million [US$4,500] a day to rent a special room.

Following Vanny's claims, the Law and Human Rights Ministry conducted an investigation and decided to dismiss Thurman Hutapea as the prison's chief warden and to transfer Freddy a maximum-security prison at Nusakambangan Island.

In another indication of the lax security at Cipinang prison, Amir and National Police officials discovered a large number of raw materials and tools to make shabu-shabu (methamphetamine) at the prison's training center on Aug. 6.

National Police Narcotics Crime director, Brig. Gen. Armand Depari, said last month that Freddy smuggled the materials and tools and left them with other inmates shortly before being transferred to Nusakambangan.

There was more controversy over Freddy's confiscated ecstasy pills. Last Friday, officials from the police's Narcotics Crime Directorate buried the confiscated drugs after tidily wrapping it in plastics.

Authorities usually burned confiscated drugs or diffused them with water to make sure that the drugs have been completely destroyed. Putting Freddy's drugs into the ground has raised speculation that some individuals are trying to save the drugs.

National Police deputy chief Comr. Gen. Oegroseno on Wednesday said that he suspected that the officers had violated regulations by not destroying the evidence.

'We will look into the possibility that there have been ethical violations in the case,' he said in Depok, on the outskirts of Jakarta.

On Thursday, National Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Agus Rianto confirmed that the drugs had been destroyed. 'We have received information that it has been destroyed in compliance with applicable regulations,' he said in Jakarta, without elaborating further.