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strong>Sept. 21, p5

Police detained two immigration officers, identified as Henri Purba and Wachid, on Saturday for allegedly extorting money from Chinese tourists.

The Denpasar Police'€™s general crimes unit head, Comr. Reinhard Habonaran Nainggolan, said his investigators had found sufficient evidence to name both officers suspects.

'€œWe have statements from witnesses and victims, we have clues and the suspects have confessed that they asked for 200 yuan [US$32] from the victims,'€ Reinhard said.

Chinese tourist Zhang Tao, 33, filed a report with the Ngurah Rai International Airport Police in which he claimed that police officers had extorted money from him and five friends upon arrival at the airport from Guangzhou, China, on Sept. 12.

Your comments:

I was once stopped by an immigration officer who was worried I was filming him with a phone sticking out of my pocket.  The phone was actually off, but his concern increased when I responded to his accusation in Indonesian.

IC

This would have gone unheard of if the tourists hadn'€™t recorded it on their phones. Everyone approaching immigration at a point of entry should take out their phones and hold them up in front of them. That would be so funny.

XSimaging

Not an uncommon occurrence. Hopefully there will be a serious clamp-down on crimes committed by immigration officers throughout the country and not just these two low-level, despicable thieves.

Willo