Activists claim police cells seriously overcrowded
Activists claim police cells seriously overcrowded
JAKARTA (JP): Activists from the Anti-Torture Network visited
on Tuesday the headquarters of the city police and the West,
North and East Jakarta police, and reported that their detention
cells were seriously overcrowded.
Prisoners are packed into small, dark, fetid detention cells,
according to Sumamihardja, who led a group of 10 activists to the
Jakarta Police Headquarters.
The cells at the city police headquarters house 390 prisoners,
including 189 prisoners transferred from the Attorney General's
Office.
The North Jakarta Police Headquarters houses 362 prisoners,
the West Jakarta Police Headquarters 346 prisoners and the East
Jakarta Police Headquarters 91 prisoners -- all beyond their
capacities.
At the North Jakarta Police Headquarters, each nine-square-
meter detention cell accommodate 19 prisoners on average.
Doho A. Sastro, who led activists to the East Jakarta Police
Headquarters, said the cells were dark and stuffy and lacked
ventilation.
The prisoners are not only packed into small cells, they are
also often tortured by police, especially during questioning,
according to the activists.
Based on testimony from a number of detainees, Sumamihardja
said police officers often tortured suspects during questioning
in a detective's room, not in the cells.
As a result of the torture, two men being detained at the
Jakarta Police Headquarters had to be taken to the Kramat Jati
Police Hospital in East Jakarta for treatment, the activists
said.
According to a report from the Commission for Missing Persons
and Victims of Violence, there were 908 torture cases recorded in
Jakarta last year.
The report said the police allegedly tortured criminal
suspects, non-governmental organization activists, university
students, journalists, laborers, farmers and others.
The visit to the police detention cells, organized in
conjunction with the United Nations Anti-Torture Day, which fell
on June 26, was aimed at pressuring the police to reduce or
abandon altogether the torture of prisoners, according to the
activists.
The activists were denied access to detention cells at the
South and Central Jakarta police headquarters.
Erna Ratnaningsih, who led the activists, said she was
disappointed that the South and Central Jakarta police chiefs
refused to grant the activists' access to their cells.
"I will ask the National Commission on Human Rights to file
letters of complaint with the National Police chief and the city
police chief about this matter," she told The Jakarta Post. (01)