Police arrest sixteen men for cock-fight gambling

Police arrest sixteen men for cock-fight gambling

JAKARTA (JP): Sixteen men arrested on Sunday for gambling on a cock-fight, one of whom is a retired army corporal, remain in detention despite an apparent attempt by Kopassus to arrange their release.

The suspects, many of them Chinese-Indonesians and Madurese, were caught at the fight by the police at around 3.30 p.m. near Tanjung Priok railway station in North Jakarta.

Sources told The Jakarta Post yesterday that several hours after the arrests two men claiming to be members of the Armed Forces' elite Kopassus red berets came to City Police Headquarters and asked the police to release the suspects.

The unexpected visitors were rebuked by the police, according to the sources.

Col. Heniyoso, head of the On-the-Alert City Police squad which arrested the gamblers, refused to comment on his military visitors, saying that he had no authority to talk to the press about it.

Cock fighting, one of many popular traditional games in this country, is not banned by the government as long as it is not accompanied by gambling.

"The actual number of people involved in Sunday's game was estimated to be more than 100 people, but some escaped arrest," Heniyoso said.

In the raid, the police also confiscated 16 cocks and a total of Rp 1.5 million (US$700) in cash from the suspects.

Except for the retired army corporal, whose name is being withheld by the police, the suspects are being held at the City Police Crime Investigation Directorate for further investigation.

Cock-fights for gamblers are still being held throughout the city, such as in Pulomas, East Jakarta.

"We'll arrest anybody involved in illegal cock-fighting gambling regardless of their rank," Heniyoso said. (bsr)