Three guards blamed for jailbreak now face sanctions

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

Three wardens were on Saturday held responsible for negligence that led to the escape of 31 convicts from a prison in Medan, North Sumatra.

The suspects, including the chief guard identified only by his initials as MUL, would face disciplinary sanctions -- all increases in salaries and ranks would be delayed, said the Justice and Human Rights Office official in charge of corrections facilities, Bambang Winahyo.

Two other wardens were identified only by their initials as NUR and HEH.

"They deserve sanctions because they have neglected their tasks, so the prisoners ran away," Bambang told The Jakarta Post.

Minister of Justice and Human Rights Hamid Awwaluddin, who made a sudden unannounced visit to the prison on Friday, had promised that the case would be thoroughly investigated and the guilty officials severely punished.

Bambang said an investigation by his office found that the escape of the inmates at dawn on Friday was also likely to be because of the poor physical condition of the prison buildings.

Bambang said the roofs of four of the upper guard posts leaked, which meant guards often abandoned them in heavy rains.

In addition, the building also lacked "support facilities", such as searchlights and guards were not equipped with flashlights, which could prevent escapes, he said.

The prison's chief guard, Mul, was held the most responsible for the case because he had allowed Nur to leave his upper post when it was raining, while Hen was blamed for not patrolling the area.

The adult inmates, who were being kept temporarily at the Tanjung Gusta Children's Penitentiary in Medan, broke out of the jail by helping one another to reach the roof of a large dining hall.

They then shimmied down the prison's outer walls to escape.

However, five of the 31 escapees -- mostly serving sentences of between one and four years for drug offenses -- were recaptured hours later, North Sumatra Police chief Insp. Gen. Iwan Panjiwinata said on Saturday.

The five were named as Nanang Kosim, 23, Ruslian, 22, Agus Salim, 26, Ahmad Syahdam alias Ucok, 23 and M. Teguh.

Three of them were detained at the Medan Police office and the two others were hospitalized for shot wounds to the legs when "they tried to avoid arrest", Iwan said.

"We will continue searching until all the escapees are recaptured," he told the Post.

Ucok told investigators that he and the 30 other inmates had not planned the escape but that it had happened "spontaneously", Bambamg said.

Uduk said the idea to escape came at around 11 p.m. from prisoner Nanang, who had noticed that during the rain several posts were not guarded.

A similar incident occurred at the Batam Penitentiary in September last year when 52 convicts escaped by sawing through the bars of their cells.

Some have been recaptured but many are still at large. Overcrowding and lax security were blamed for the escape.