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Kontras records rampant abuse by police officers
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Seeking the truth: Personnel of the National Police's Densus 88 counterterrorism squad guard the autopsy process of the body of suspected terrorist Siyono in Pogung village, Klaten, Central Java, in March last year. Siyono reportedly died after he was tortured by police personnel following his arrest. (ANTARA FOTO/Aloysius Jarot Nugroho)
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he Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) recorded 115 cases of physical abuse allegedly committed by police personnel against civilians over a period of 11 months.
“The highest number of cases of abuse committed by police officers is at the level of police precincts,” Kontras researcher Ananto Setiawan said as quoted by kompas.com in a press conference on Wednesday.
Kontras reported that at least 88 cases of abuse took place in police precincts across Indonesia from the period of June 2016 to May 2017.
At least 20 cases occurred at sub-precinct police offices and eight at the provincial police level, he added.
Ananto went on to say that most cases of physical abuse occurred during the interrogation of suspected criminals.
He said police officers often argued they needed to use physical force to extract information or make suspects admit their crimes.
“In fact it's possible that in many cases they [the suspects] did not commit crimes but were forced to admit to them,” Ananto said.
The researcher said it often happened that police officers bribed the victims or their families after committing the abuse.
In some cases, the responsible officers simply ignored the victims, Ananto said, adding that many officers were still able to evade sanctions despite committing abuse. (afr/ebf)
