Police: Violators Of Quarantine Rules Can Be Fined Rp100 Million

Head of the National Police Public Relations Division Inspector General Dedi Prasetyo at an event (Doc. Police Public Relations)

JAKARTA - The National Police has confirmed that strict action will be taken against anyone who violates or violates the quarantine rules.

In fact, the National Police Chief General Listyo Sigit Prabowo has ordered the Directorate of Special Economic Crimes (Dittipideksus) of the National Police to form a team to investigate alleged violations and irregularities in quarantine.

"Anyone who is proven to have violated the quarantine from upstream to downstream will be taken decisive action," said Head of the Public Relations Division of the National Police Inspector General Dedi Prasetyo in a written statement, Saturday, February 5.

Dedi reminded all parties to obey health protocols. He also said that violators of the quarantine rules could be sentenced to imprisonment and fined Rp. 100 million.

In fact, if bribery is found by the violators, they can be subject to additional penalties in the form of a corruption article.

"There are various kinds of regulations that have been violated, namely Article 14 of Law Number 4 of 1984 concerning infectious disease outbreaks and Article 93 of Law Number 6 of 2018 concerning Quarantine which is a one year prison sentence and a fine of IDR 100 million. " he insisted.

Furthermore, Dedi explained that several cases of quarantine violations occurred because of the blank area of foreign nationals (WNA) and Indonesian citizens upon arrival in the country heading for immigration.

This blank area is suspected to be a potential violation and deviation of the quarantine rules. The reason is that transactional activities for those who have just arrived can be carried out in that position.

For this condition, the team, which was directly ordered by the National Police Chief, worked to investigate whether or not there was a criminal act in the quarantine process. This step is carried out by communicating to verifying a number of parties.

"The team is working, already communicating, coordinating, verifying, with various parties starting from immigration, health quarantine then the COVID Task Force, airport managers to officers at the airport, up to the PHRI party who manages hotel services where foreigners and Indonesian citizens are quarantined, " said Dedi.

Furthermore, the National Police also has an application to minimize violations of quarantine rules called Precise Quarantine Monitoring.

This application, continued Dedi, serves to monitor foreigners and Indonesian citizens who enter Indonesia from arrival to quarantine locations. Several gates such as airports, ports, and cross-border posts have implemented the use of the Precision Quarantine Monitoring Application.

However, the success or failure of the implementation of this monitoring certainly requires cooperation from various parties such as the COVID-19 Task Force to the TNI to carry out conventional supervision.

"There must be a synergy between technology and conventional in supervision," he said.

Finally, Dedi also asked the public to take on the role of supervising the quarantine process in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is done by reporting the violators who will be dealt with firmly.

"The task force will tighten health protocols so that level assessments in the area can be controlled. Please report it to the nearest police if you see quarantine deviations, strict action will be taken," concluded Dedi.