Rights association accuses security personnel of torture
Rights association accuses security personnel of torture
JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights
Association (PBHI) filed a complaint on Wednesday to the National
Commission on Human Rights over alleged torture by security
officers of eight suspects in the Jakarta Stock Exchange bombing
incident.
"Several military and police personnel tortured the suspects
in order to make them testify in accordance with what they
wanted," Johnson Panjaitan who led a team of PBHI's lawyers told
the commission.
He accused the officers of torturing the suspects -- Nuryadin,
Sergeant Irwan, Corporal Ibrahim Hasan, Tengku Ismahmudi Jafar,
Iswadi H. Jamil, M. Mudin, and Saifan Nudin -- during initial
questioning from Sept. 20 to Sept. 30 last year.
He said that the suspects were tortured at the initial hearing
at Ciganjur Subprecinct Police office, at city police
headquarters and at Military Police headquarters.
They tortured the suspects in various ways, such as shooting
the suspects with a gun, burning them with cigarette butts,
hurting them with machetes, beating and electrocuting them. The
anus of one suspect was even stabbed with a rod until it bled, he
said.
"Therefore, we ask the Commission to investigate the police
and military personnel who committed human right abuses against
our clients," he said.
Eleven people were killed and dozens of others injured in the
blast at the Jakarta Stock Exchange building in Central Jakarta
last September.
Johnson also asked the Commission to issue a recommendation
requesting the South Jakarta District Court to suspend the trial
of the JSX bombing suspects, scheduled on April 9.
He said the lawyers would also file a complaint with the
international anti-torture commission.
Asmara Nababan, a member of the Commission, pledged to look
into the matter.
"If we find any indication of human rights abuses by the
police and military personnel, we will conduct an investigation,"
he said.
Nababan promised to recommend to the South Jakarta District
Court to suspend the bombing case trial if there is evidence of
human rights violations during the police's initial questioning.
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