Sacked officer questioned over Tangerang riot
JAKARTA (JP): First Lt. Mahyudin Chaniago, who was dismissed from his post as chief of the Kronjo subprecinct in Tangerang Thursday, is now undergoing questioning concerning the recent riot in which his office was damaged.
"Through the questioning, we expect to be able to determine what rules the officer might have violated and what punishment he might face," National Police Chief Lt. Gen. Dibyo Widodo said here on Saturday.
Mahyudin is being interrogated at the Internal Affairs division of the Jakarta Police Department.
Mahyudin was abruptly dismissed to appease the hundreds of angry residents, who had thrown stones at the subprecinct office on Wednesday. They were upset at a rumor that an area resident, identified as Supena, had been detained on Wednesday for reading the Holy Koran over a loudspeaker too early in the morning at a local mosque.
The rumor of the arrest of Supena spread to the neighboring district of Mauk and hundreds of poorly-informed people attacked Mahyudin's office.
Supena later explained to the angry residents that Mahyudin had simply told him on Wednesday not to recite prayers over loudspeakers too early in the morning as many people who had just returned from work after midnight were still sleeping.
"The questioning hasn't been completed yet. If evidence to charge him is not found, there will be nothing wrong in freeing him. We have been informed so far that the incident was purely caused by a misunderstanding," Dibyo told reporters after taking part in a routine weekend exercise with senior police officers at the Ancol Dreamland complex in North Jakarta.
That's why, he said, Mahyudin has not been fired from police force. He was just "temporarily transferred to the Jakarta Police Headquarters."
Dibyo called upon the residents of Kronjo, which is about 60 kilometers west of here, to calm down.
No fatalities were reported in the attack, but all of the windows in the police subprecinct office were smashed.
Under the permission of Greater Jakarta Police Chief. May. Gen. Hamami Nata, Lt. Col. Iman Haryatna, the newly-installed Tangerang Police chief, ordered Mahyudin to quit his post and installed Second Lt. Harun Idris, deputy head of the nearby Jatiuwung police precinct, to replace Mahyudin.
"The dismissal was carried out 'to neutralize' a misunderstanding between officers and residents," he said.
The incident was the first test for Iman, who had just taken his new post in Tangerang one day before the incident happened. He was previously the spokesman for the Greater Jakarta police.
Iman was installed on Tuesday to replace Lt. Col. Djoko Satryo. During Djoko's six-month period, at least two Tangerang police officers were arrested.
The first one was head of the Tangerang police detectives, Capt. Ade Sutiana, who was charged with negligence in relation to the escape of a suspected Ecstasy trafficker.
The second officer, Capt. Unggul, was apprehended for allegedly extorting money from a suspected gambler he had arrested.
The two cases are now being re-examined by the Jakarta Military Police prior to possible trial at the military tribunal.
National Police Chief Dibyo pledged to continue his campaign to fight against any unscrupulous personnel in the police force.
"To do that, we do need the active role and participation of the public by informing us with accurate data about any dishonest police officers," he said. (bsr)