American citizen complains of extortion

JAKARTA: American citizen Brian McCaen has lodged a complaint against a number of officers from the Kemayoran Police, Central Jakarta, whom he said entered his house without a warrant.

"They came twice, rudely banging on the door and entered my home. They harassed my wife when I was not at home, without any warrant nor any reason for being there. They asked me to come to the police station and demanded money, saying that we should pay it if we didn't want anything bad to happen," McCaen told The Jakarta Post after visiting the station with his Indonesian wife, Susi Hartini, on Tuesday.

"I called the American Embassy yesterday to report the problem. And the embassy called the station. Everything has been settled and suddenly they have become very nice," he said.

The police, however, denied that the McCaens had reported anything untoward.

"The wife said they came here to report that the American was staying at her house. They didn't mention anything about an incident," First Insp. Haryanto told the Post. -- JP