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National scene: Police probe death of Benjina witness
The National Police have launched an investigation into the death of Yosep Sair Lela, a key witness in the Benjina slavery case
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he National Police have launched an investigation into the death of Yosep Sair Lela, a key witness in the Benjina slavery case.
National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Anton Charliyan said that the investigation would start by studying Yosep's autopsy report.
Yosep, an official with the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Agency of Aru Isles in Maluku, where the Benjina slavery case was uncovered, died late last week at a hotel in Menteng, Central Jakarta.
An Initial report said that he died from cardiac arrest.
'We're waiting for the autopsy results to determine if he was murdered or if he killed himself,' Anton said.
Yosep was said to have held significant information that led to the uncovering of the slavery case.
A recent Associated Press report exposed alleged forced labor practices on the remote island of Benjina, in which the only official fishing operation on the island, PT Pusaka Benjina Resources (PBR), was suspected of treating hundreds of workers as slaves, even throwing some workers into cages.
According to the report, most workers were brought into the country through Thailand and forced to fish, oiling the gears of the global seafood supply chain. Most were reported to have originated from the countries neighboring Thailand, namely Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.
