Police refuse to free student leader despite pressure
Police refuse to free student leader despite pressure
JAKARTA (JP): Despite a hunger strike held by six students and
pressure from the National Commission of Human Rights (Komnas
HAM), City Police refused to back down and release Mixil Mina
Munir, a student leader detained for protesting the recent fuel
price hike.
City Police chief Insp. Gen. Sofjan Yacob said on Wednesday
that the police had gone through the correct procedures in
arresting Mixil and there were no reasons to release him.
"In this particular matter, police do not care who protests
and in which way. We must uphold the law. Mixil is a suspect.
People may hold hunger strikes for him and his friends, it is
their right.
"Even if the world falls apart, the police will not release
Mixil. He is a suspect and must be brought before a court,"
Sofjan told reporters on Wednesday.
A student of the Syariah Islamic law school at the State
Institute of Islamic Studies (IAIN) Jakarta in Ciputat, South
Jakarta, and a Forum Kota (City Forum) activist Mixil was
arrested with two friends in front of the IAIN campus for
inciting chaos on June 16 this year, following a demonstration on
the recent fuel price hike.
Mixil's two arrested friends were identified as Haris, a
student of the Computer and Information Technology Institute
(STIK) and Miftahudin, a driver of a public minivan that plies
the Ciputat-Pondok Labu route in South Jakarta.
Six Forum Kota members have been on hunger strike since
Friday. Their demand is that Mixil and his two friends must be
released.
One of the protesters, Andi Mayer, was rushed to a nearby
hospital on Tuesday due to his worsening health. As of Wednesday,
he was still being treated at Agung Hospital in Manggarai, South
Jakarta.
Rey, another hunger striker, began to shake violently when he
woke up on Wednesday morning, while the remaining four protesters
simply looked thinner and weaker at the parking lot of Komnas
HAM's office on Jl. Latuharhari, Central Jakarta.
A Komnas HAM member, B.N. Marbun, said on Wednesday that he
had already met Jakarta Police chief of detectives, Sr. Comr.
Adang Rochyana, on the matter.
Marbun said that in his talk with Adang, the commission had
requested that the three suspects be placed under house arrest
with a guarantor instead; given conditional release on the basis
that they were not engaged in any kind of criminal activity
during the release; and that police should not physically assault
the suspects.
"Pak Adang asked the commission to send City Police a letter
on the matter, which we have already done," Marbun told the
students during a talk at the Komnas HAM office in Central
Jakarta.
The student protesters, however, did not accept this, stating
that the police would only manipulate the law.
Marbun informed the students that the police had a right to
declare someone a suspect, if it was based on facts. The students
insisted that their friends be released, unconditionally.
The dialog turned into a heated argument and ended with Marbun
leaving the students and ordering security guards to call the
police.
Upon hearing this, the students turned wild and began banging
on the doors of the commission office, before entering the office
and banging on the tables and walls. They screamed that Marbun
must apologize for his behavior.
Marbun finally stepped out of the room and apologized to the
students. (ylt/01)