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)