11 grilled for court document forgery

JAKARTA: The police are interrogating 11 officials allegedly linked with the forgery of court papers which allowed two Nigerians convicted of drug trafficking last year to escape from prison.

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Anton Bachrul Alam said Wednesday that the 11 officials were from the Cipinang penitentiary, Jakarta Prosecutor's Office, and East Jakarta District Court.

"Thus far, we have evidence that three officials from the East Jakarta District Court are involved in the document fraud," he said, only identifying the officials involved by their initials JM, T, and R.

A Nigerian man, Michael Roger Earp, and woman, Abdalla, escaped from the Cipinang penitentiary in East Jakarta and the Tangerang Women's Penitentiary respectively on Dec. 30 last year with forged court documents stating that they had been acquitted based upon a judicial review.

The East Jakarta District Court had sentenced the man to 20- years imprisonment and the woman to 15-years imprisonment after finding them guilty of smuggling 1.2 kilograms (2.64 pounds) of heroin into Indonesia last year.

"The couple could have fled to their home country. We're now tracking down the lawyer who helped them to escape," said Anton. --JP