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Officers linked to May 22 brutality may not face trial
Ten Mobile Brigade (Brimob) officers implicated in a police brutality case in Kampung Bali subdistrict, Central Jakarta, would only face disciplinary sanctions instead of harsh punishment, raising critics from human rights watchdog.
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Medical personnel carries injured protester to the emergency room of Tarakan Hospital in Jakarta on Wednesday evening. The protester got injured during a rally in front of the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) headquarters in Central Jakarta minutes before taken to the hospital by medical team. (JP/Kharishar Kahfi)
T
he National Police announced on Friday that the 10 Mobile Brigade (Brimob) officers implicated in a police brutality case in Kampung Bali subdistrict, Central Jakarta, would only face disciplinary sanctions of up to 21 days of detention as stipulated in Article 9 of Government Regulation No. 2/2003 on police discipline, despite having allegedly beaten two civilians in the post-election riots.
National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Dedi Prasetyo said the detained officers were currently undergoing a disciplinary hearing and would eventually be sent back to their respective police corps. They face administrative and disciplinary sanctions, with a maximum penalty of 21 days in detention.
“We haven’t figured out yet whether there will be a possibility of them facing criminal charges. We will decide [on the matter] after they complete the disciplinary sanction,” he told the press.
The officers allegedly beat two civilians they deemed to be rioters, Andri Bibir and Markus Ali, after an unidentified person had shot a poisoned arrow at their commander during the riot.
“Because their leader was attacked, the officers subsequently looked for the shooter and then caught Andri Bibir and Markus Ali,” Dedi said.
The May 22 riots broke out as thousands of supporters of losing presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto took to the streets to challenge the official result of the election. Nine civilians were killed in the incident, all of whom the police say were rioters. Four of them died from bullets, the police said, but denied any involvement in the deaths.
The police said the examination of the two projectiles pulled from the bodies of two victims, namely Harun Arasyid and Abdul Aziz, showed that the bullets did not match with any weapons usually used by the police.
