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)