Salemba jailbreak a 'case of negligence'

JAKARTA (JP): Five men escaped from Salemba Penitentiary on Monday morning by breaking through a wall near their cells.

There has been no indication of collusion between prison guards and the escapees. The escape appears to be a case of negligence, Minister of Justice Muladi said yesterday.

Muladi told a news conference at the penitentiary in Central Jakarta that he had ordered the directorate general of correctional institutions to look into whether any of the prison guards were responsible for the escape.

"I've set up a special team to investigate this case. I've also asked related officials to thoroughly examine on-duty wardens who were in charge at the time of the incident," he said.

If proven guilty of negligence, the wardens could receive administration sanctions as stated in Government Regulation No.30/1996 on the disciplining of state employees, Muladi said.

"We're doing the best we can to solve this case," he said.

He acknowledged that the poor state of Salemba Penitentiary played a part in the escape of the five prisoners.

"The penitentiary is full, with 800 detainees, including those awaiting court verdicts.

"I will give orders to transfer some of them to other prisons as soon as possible," he said, adding that many detainees refused to be moved from Salemba because they were afraid of receiving rough treatment at other prisons.

The five prisoners escaped from Salemba Penitentiary at about 3 a.m.

The five men, who were being held on narcotic charges, were identified as Arifin Ibrahim, 26, Sulaiman Amin, 32, Zaini Hasan, 27, Syarifuddin Nasution, 37, and Parlindungan alias Rudi, 20.

Arifin and Sulaiman later turned themselves in by contacting relatives who took them to prosecutor Rieka Tahalele, who was in charge of their cases.

Arifin and Sulaiman were charged with possession of 17 kilograms of hashish and were to be taken for trial yesterday.

But when guards went to collect them from their cells for transfer to court, both the suspects were missing. Arifin and Sulaiman claimed they were forced to join the escape by the other three men, who are still missing and have been declared fugitives by the Ministry of Justice.

City police spokesmen Lt. Col. Aritonang said the city police would work with the team from the Ministry of Justice to capture the three fugitives.

"Currently we're tracking them down. We are coordinating with the Ministry of Justice and hopefully the fugitives are still in the immediate vicinity," he said. (edt)