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14 inmates remain at large after Riau penitentiary riot
The police are having difficulty identifying the escaped inmates as the inmates destroyed the database during the riot.
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The Riau Police are still searching for 14 inmates who escaped after a riot broke out in Siak Sri Indrapura Penitentiary in Riau early on Saturday. (JP/R. Berto Wedhatama )
T
he Riau Police are still searching for 14 inmates who escaped after a riot broke out in Siak Sri Indrapura Penitentiary in Riau early on Saturday.
According to Riau Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Sinarto, almost half of the penitentiary's inmates attempted to escape amid the riot, which broke out following a drug raid by the prison authority.
He said the police managed to thwart some of the attempts and arrested some of the inmates who fled. As of Sunday, 14 inmates remained at large, he added.
However, as inmates had set fire to the guards’ office and burned the inmates database amid the riot, the police are having difficulty identifying the escaped inmates.
"We have yet to identify the escaped inmates because their database was burned in the fire," Sinarto said on Sunday, as quoted by tempo.co.
The Siak penitentiary holds a total of 648 inmates.
He added that the Riau office of the Law and Human Rights Ministry had evacuated 615 inmates to several penitentiaries and prisons spread across four regencies or cities in the province: Bengkalis, Pekanbaru, Bangkinang and Dumai.
"Fifty-six members of the Riau Police's Mobile Brigade (Brimob) guarded the evacuation process," Sinarto said.
The riot broke out after a prison guard reportedly hit one of the inmates who was found consuming drugs following a raid by the prison authority. The incident angered other prisoners, who then damaged the penitentiary and set fire to the guards' office. (ars)
Rizal Harahap in Pekanbaru contributed reporting.
