Former Residents Of Yogyakarta Narcotics Case Hold Silent Action, They Ask For Cases Of Violence To Be Ended

A number of former WBP Narcotics Prison Class II A Yogyakarta held a silent action in front of the Regional Office of the Kemenkumham DIY, Wednesday. ANTARA/Luqman Hakim.

YOGYAKARTA - A number of former residents of the Yogyakarta Class II A Narcotics Prison held a silent action in front of the Regional Office of the Kemenkumham DIY. They demanded that the handling of cases of alleged violence in prisons be completed immediately.

The action was carried out by victims and witnesses of alleged cases of violence and sexual harassment by officers at the Yogyakarta Narcotics Prison.

Apart from former inmates, several action participants with conditional leave (CB) and parole (PB) also took part in this action.

"We urge the Ombudsman and Komnas HAM to immediately issue a recommendation to the Regional Office of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights of DIY regarding incidents of violence in the form of torture and acts that degrade our dignity as human beings," said the coordinator of the action, Luthfi Farid, as quoted by Antara, Wednesday, November 24.

Through this action, Lutfi asked that various acts of violence in the prison located in Pakem, Sleman not be repeated in the future.

According to him, this hope can be realized if efforts to prevent all forms of serious violence are carried out by the prison and the DIY Ministry of Law and Human Rights Regional Office.

In addition, the former inmates also urged that there be no more threats of revocation of conditional leave (CB) and parole (PB) for inmates who report cases of alleged violence in the prison.

The assistant to former assisted residents Anggara Adiyaksa said the relevant authorities could not threaten to revoke the CB and PB that had been obtained by WBP.

"Stop threatening the revocation of conditional leave and parole, either directly or indirectly, as long as the WBP does not commit a crime and stop the narrative that shifts public opinion which is not necessarily true," said Anggara.

The Head of the Human Rights Division of the Regional Office of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, DIY, Purwanto, said that the aspirations conveyed by the former WBP were used as material for evaluation and improvement of his staff in providing coaching services for WBP.

"We use that as material for our evaluation and correction to make improvements and reinforcements, of course, in carrying out guidance to the inmates that have been regulated and contained in the legislation as well as operational guidelines, technical guidelines, and SOPs," said Purwanto. Regarding the development of the alleged violence case at the Yogyakarta Narcotics Prison, Purwanto said that the results of the preliminary investigation had been sent to the Inspectorate General and the Directorate General of Corrections at the Ministry of Law and Human Rights.

Later, the results of the investigation will be synchronized with the results of the deepening of the Ombudsman of the Republic of Indonesia (ORI) and Komnas HAM.

"Currently the process is with the Inspectorate General of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights to get the results of the decision on the steps that must be taken and the application of sanctions that will be imposed by the officers in charge," said Purwanto.

Previously, a number of former inmates of the Yogyakarta Class II A Narcotics Prison complained to the ORI Representatives of Yogyakarta and Central Java on November 1, 2021, regarding the allegations of sexual abuse and harassment they experienced while in the prison.

Responding to this, the DIY Kemenkumham Regional Office immediately conducted an investigation and examined five prison officers suspected of being involved in the case along with their temporary dismissal of their positions.