Forty-nine inmates escape from Mataram penitentiary
Forty-nine inmates escape from Mataram penitentiary
JAKARTA (JP): At least 49 prisoners escaped from the Mataram
penitentiary in West Nusa Tenggara on Sunday morning after
working together to force open the prison's iron gates.
One guard was injured in the incident.
No prison officials or local police were willing to comment on
the massive escape.
When contacted by The Jakarta Post, prison staff said they
were not permitted to talk at the moment.
It is not clear whether the 49 escapees were the only inmates
in the prison.
Husaini Kadir, head of the West Nusa Tenggara office of the
Ministry of Justice, told Antara late Sunday that the prisoners
escaped by taking advantage of a crowd of visitors during the 8
a.m. to 12 p.m. visiting time at the penitentiary.
"The prisoners walked together with the crowd of visitors, who
were leaving the prison, as the first of the two iron gates were
about to be opened by the guards, before suddenly forcing their
way through to run out of the gates," Kadir said.
The prisoners managed to flee without encountering significant
obstacles, he said, without revealing the number of guards and
administration staff on duty at the time.
One of the prisoners, Kadir said, hit a guard over the head
with a brick. The guard was only slightly injured, he said.
Several security guards on the scene could do nothing due to
the large number of prisoners, he said, enabling them to easily
slip through the second gate.
As of Sunday evening, five of the convicts had been
apprehended and brought back to the jail, he said.
"Until 9 p.m., five of then had been re-arrested and they came
back here in a public car."
Assisted by 200 police officers from the West Lombok police
precinct and West Nusa Tenggara Police, prison officials are
still chasing the remaining 44 escapees.
The troops had visited houses of escapees and their relatives
in efforts to apprehend them.
"Security personnel are also tightly guarding two seaports, at
the Lembar seaport in West Lombok and Kayangan port in East
Lombok, to prevent the inmates leaving Lombok," he said.
Kadir said the police and his office were also questioning the
guards and staff at the prison on duty at the time.
"We're still investigating them for their alleged role in the
escape," Kadir said. (asa)