Prosecutors held hostage by anticorruption group

Yemris Fointuna, The Jakarta Post, Kupang

Driven by their frustration over the sluggish investigation into corruption cases, dozens of anticorruption activists took high- ranking prosecutors hostage in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara on Tuesday.

A visiting team of prosecutors from Jakarta and top local prosecutors were held for over two-and-a-half hours in a meeting room at the East Nusa Tenggara Prosecutor's Office, but no injuries were reported.

The protesters, who wore red headbands, approached the compound at 1 p.m when a meeting between the Jakarta team and local prosecutors was underway. They formed a line in front of the building to prevent the prosecutors from leaving.

The 20 security guards who were on duty scuffled with them but were outnumbered and retreated to the lobby of the building in order to prevent the protesters from entering the meeting room, which had been locked from the inside.

The activists shouted their demands that the prosecutors speed up their investigation into corruption cases, including alleged corruption cases that involved top officials in Belu, Kupang and Alor regencies. One of the East Nusa Tenggara prosecutors offered to talk with the protesters but his offer was turned down.

Two hours later, when the activists had relaxed their security and were scattered around the compound, security guards escorted out of the building Achmad Luja, the Attorney General's deputy for prosecutor's monitoring, and East Nusa Tenggara Prosecutor's Office deputy chief Rudi Prajitno. However, the protesters were alerted to the move and prevented the prosecutors from entering the official car parked outside the building. One of the activists even took up a position on the car's roof, from where he threatened the prosecutors.

Fearing the situation would turn ugly, the security guards escorted the prosecutors to the meeting room and from there, out the back door. Outside, several plainclothes policeman were ready with a car to transport the prosecutors to a safe place.

The team of prosecutors from the AGO were in East Nusa Tenggara to question several local prosecutors who had allegedly extorted local officials involved in a corruption cases.