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Riau Police name 85 suspects in land-clearing cases
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Burned – A land fire in Batu Panjang, Rupat district, Bengkalis regency, is seen from above. Burned areas are often on land owned by local people that borders concession areas belonging to companies with industrial forest permits. (Courtesy of the Riau Land and Forest Fire Post’s air task force/-)
T
he Riau Police have named 85 suspects for allegedly clearing land by burning, which resulted in haze problems from January through August, a senior police officer has said.
“The 85 suspects are being handled by 11 police precincts under the Riau Police,” Riau Police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Guntur Aryo Tejo said as quoted by Antara news agency in Pekanbaru on Monday.
Guntur said the suspects, who were linked to land-clearing cases on privately owned land, were associated with 67 police reports. Currently, the police have submitted most of the dossiers to the prosecutor’s office for further legal proceedings.
The Riau administration raised the alert status for forest and land fires in the province in March. The status is expected to remain in place until November in anticipation of prolonged haze woes.
Riau Disaster Mitigation Agency head Edwar Sanger said fires had engulfed more than 1,559.9 hectares across the province between January and August. (dmr)
