Police Guarantee Protection for Informants in Acid Attack on KontraS Activist
The National Police (Polri) Headquarters has appealed to the public for assistance in providing information regarding the caustic acid attack on KontraS Deputy Coordinator Andrie Yunus.
Brigadier General Johnny Eddizon Isir, Head of the Police Public Relations Division, assured that the force would guarantee the safety of anyone providing information to investigators. “To all members of the public, particularly those who are aware of the sequence of events, we urge you to provide information to the Police, especially the investigators,” he told journalists on Friday, 13 March.
He appealed to members of the public who possess information not to fear reporting it. Investigators, he said, would maintain the confidentiality of the informant’s identity. “We assure members of the public who provide information that we will provide them with protection,” he stated.
Furthermore, Isir assured that the entire investigation process would be conducted in a scientific, transparent and professional manner in order to identify the perpetrators. “We call upon all members of society; we pray that this process will soon shed light on who the perpetrators are and that they will be apprehended so that everything becomes crystal clear, including the motive,” he concluded.
Previously, Andrie Yunus, Deputy Coordinator of the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS), fell victim to a caustic acid attack in central Jakarta on Thursday, 12 March evening.
KontraS Coordinator Dimas Bagus Arya stated that the incident occurred after Andrie Yunus attended a podcast event titled “Remilitarisation and Judicial Review in Indonesia” at the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) office, at approximately 23:00 WIB. “He suffered an attack from a caustic acid spray by an unknown individual, which resulted in serious wounds across his body, particularly on both hands, face, chest and eye area,” he said in a written statement on Friday, 13 March.
Dimas stated that due to the incident, Andrie was immediately taken to hospital for medical treatment. He noted that medical examination showed Andrie suffered burns covering 24 per cent of his body. “From the examination results, Andrie sustained 24 per cent burns,” he stated.
Based on the sequence of events, Dimas said the incident began when Andrie was riding his motorcycle on Salemba I Street to Talang, central Jakarta. Two perpetrators then approached him in the opposite direction on Talang Road (Talang Bridge) whilst riding a two-wheeled vehicle, suspected to be a Honda Beat automatic motorcycle from 2016 to 2021.
“The perpetrators were two men who carried out their operation using a single motorcycle, with each playing the role of driver and passenger respectively,” he explained.
He described the first suspect as wearing a white-blue combination t-shirt, dark-coloured trousers suspected to be jeans, and a black helmet. The second perpetrator, the passenger, wore a black face covering or mask resembling a ‘buff’ that covered half the face, a dark blue t-shirt and blue trousers that were folded to be short and suspected to be jeans.
“One of the perpetrators then sprayed caustic acid towards the victim, which struck part of the victim’s body. As a result of the attack, the victim immediately screamed in pain and dropped his motorcycle,” he explained.