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Two Tangerang prison officers dismissed following escape of death row inmate
The tower guard and another officer in charge of monitoring CCTVs at the penitentiary’s command center admitted they had been asleep during the incident.
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The tunnel allegedly made by Chinese inmate Cai Ji Fan to escape the Tangerang penitentiary. (Wartakota.tribunnews.com/Handout)
T
wo prison officers at the Tangerang penitentiary in Banten have been suspended following the escape of Cai Changpan, a Chinese drug convict on death row, on Sept. 14.
Law and Human Rights Ministry Corrections Directorate General spokesperson Rika Aprianti confirmed the move.
"The head of security and the commander of the guard team when the incident occurred are temporarily dismissed from the Tangerang penitentiary and have been transferred to the Banten Law and Human Rights Regional Office," Rika said on Thursday as quoted by tempo.co, adding that both would still go through an investigation despite the transfer.
Jakarta Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Yusri Yunus said the escape of the 53-year-old man, who also goes by the name Cai Ji Fan, was discovered 11 hours after the fact.
Yusri said the tower guard and another officer in charge of monitoring CCTVs at the penitentiary’s command center admitted they had been asleep during the incident.
Cai left the penitentiary at 2:30 a.m. through a 30-meter-long tunnel he had dug over the past six months. Yusri said the police were still examining the possibility that other persons were involved in Cai’s escape.
Cai was found guilty of drug trafficking and sentenced to death in 2017.
Reuters reported that Cai had broken out of a Jakarta police detention center in 2017 by breaking a hole in a bathroom wall.
The police have placed him on their most wanted list. (aly)
