Four held for aiding stowaway attempt: Police

JAKARTA (JP): Police have arrested four men and are searching for two others, including a Sri Lankan national, for allegedly assisting 15 Sri Lankans slip through Soekarno-Hatta International Airport without the proper documents on Feb. 26.

An officer at the Jakarta Police directorate of intelligence and foreigner supervision said yesterday the six people were believed to be involved in an international syndicate which specialized in arranging the passage of people who did not have proper immigration documents.

"Such a syndicate is believed to exist in many countries. They arrange transportation from one country to another for people, whether looking for a better job or seeking asylum status, with incomplete documents," the officer, who asked for anonymity, told The Jakarta Post.

He said the wanted Sri Lankan suspect, identified only as B, was believed to be the mastermind behind the recent stowaway attempt.

While the other wanted suspect, an Indonesian identified as F who worked as ground crew for Garuda Indonesia at the airport, was believed to be the right-hand man of B, he said.

He said B had allegedly cooperated with other members of the syndicate in Colombo and Australia to arrange the trip for the 15 Sri Lankans from Colombo to Perth via Jakarta.

"There is a contact person who arranged the scheme when the group was still in Colombo. There is another person who was ready to organize the group's arrival in Perth."

The officer said one of the four arrested suspects was also one of Garuda's ground crew while the other three were drivers for the airline's subsidiary, PT Mandira, which managed the land transportation for airline crews.

"The four have been named suspects. They are accused of being involved in B's plan to help the 15 Sri Lankans stow away."

He said the suspects, identified as Jun, Rus, Jam and Suk, were handed over to Jakarta Police on Tuesday by the authorities of both companies.

The officer said Jun, the Garuda employee, had allegedly helped provide the blank boarding passes.

Rus, Jam and Suk, the Mandira drivers, had allegedly helped the syndicate transport the 15 Sri Lankans around the airport base to avoid security and customs checks.

The 15 Sri Lankans were still being detained at Jakarta Police Headquarters after being arrested Thursday last week at the airport by security officers.

The officer said 10 of the 15 were arrested after they had entered the aircraft using the unauthorized boarding passes provided by the suspects.

"The suspects had allegedly filled out the blank forms themselves with the names of 10 of the 15 Sri Lankans."

He said the remaining five were arrested while waiting at the boarding gate for their passes, which were supposed to be supplied by one of the suspects.

"None of the 15 Sri Lankans brought their passports. They claimed during preliminary interrogation that they were refugees who traveled in a group and their passports were kept by the head of the group," the officer said.

The so-called group leader is still at large.

Head of the foreigners supervision unit Capt. IM. Pande Cakra said an unidentified person threw the 15 foreigners's passports into the Sri Lankan Embassy compound last Monday.

He said seven, not eight as earlier reported, of the 15 Sri Lankans had overstayed their visas.

The seven include Eladchumanan Kiri Tharagopalan, Savarimurthy Sakayanathan, Shanmugan Govindarajan and Sivabalasingam Balaruban. (cst)