Bringing The Visum Results, Families Of Detainees Who Died At The Empat Lawang Police Report To The South Sumatra Police

Head of Public Relations of the South Sumatra Police Kombes Supriadi (ANTARA/M Riezko Bima Elko P)

PALEMBANG - The family of a detainee who died at the Empat Lawang Resort Police (Polres), South Sumatra, reported to the Profession and Security Sector (Propam) of the South Sumatra Police, regarding allegations of abuse by the police officers.

The victim's family legal adviser, David Sanaki, said that the dead prisoner was Ari Putra (28 years old), a resident of Bayau Village, Pendopo District, Empat Lawang Regency.

Ari was reported dead on Tuesday (21/6) night at around 22.00 WIB or a few hours after being arrested by the Empat Lawang Police, who was later found out in connection with the alleged immoral attempt.

Because of this, the family has enough evidence and witnesses to prove that Ari Putra was a victim of alleged abuse by the Empat Lawang Police officers until he was declared dead.

"This case was received by the South Sumatra Police Propam Division Yanduan, on Wednesday (29/6). "We have enough evidence and witnesses to prove that Ari's death was allegedly due to the killing of four police officers from the Empat Lawang Police, currently reported as many as 11 people.

According to him, based on the post-mortem at the Empat Lawang hospital received by the victim's family, it was found that Ari died horribly with blunt force injuries and burns to his ears, head, chest and legs.

“Ears bleed, legs and hair were burned, snorted. All of this is attached to a file that has been received by Yanduan Bid Propam of the South Sumatra Police," he said, adding that the report was accompanied by witness testimony, namely Bayu Anggara (21 years old), as a colleague of the victim who was also allegedly tortured by police officers while being detained at the Empat Lawang Police Headquarters.

Witness and victim Bayu Anggara admitted that they were mistreated separately in the examination room of the Empat Lawang Police, each of which five police officers beat him and six police officers beat victim Ari.

“It happened in the examination room, not in the detention cell. There was no interrogation whatsoever, when we got there we were immediately taken to a separate room and tortured. Then I was found in the same room with Ari, I saw that he was beaten on the leg with a long-barreled weapon by the police until he fainted, as well as I was beaten to bruises and burned my hair," said Ari who is a corn farmer by profession.

Meanwhile, the victim's father, Irsan, admitted that he did not know what actions were suspected of his son because until now the family had never received a report on Ari's arrest from the Empat Lawang Police.

Until Wednesday (22/6) morning Irsan and his family received a report that his son had died tragically at the Empat Lawang Police Headquarters despite being rushed to a local hospital.

“My son was abducted by the police in the middle of the road because there was no arrest report. Until I got the news that Ari had died, it was from someone else, not the police, Wednesday morning. I saw directly when washing the corpse, there were so many wounds. His jaw was broken, his neck was broken, his hair was burned with a lighter, his leg was beaten with a blunt object," he said.

He hopes that the report on the alleged abuse can be processed by the South Sumatra Police Propam Bid to enforce justice for the actions that have killed his son. “What did my son do wrong? until he had to die like this sir, help us. Give a punishment commensurate with the police officer, as fair as possible," he said.

The South Sumatra Police have followed up on the case of the death of a detainee at the Empat Lawang Police by deploying a Propam Bid team to conduct a local examination, on Tuesday (28/6).

The Head of Public Relations of the South Sumatra Police, Kombes Supriadi, said that while the results of the examination found that Ari Putra's death was due to a fight between detainees, not the result of being mistreated by police officers, according to information circulating.

"We need to convey the results that it is true that there were prisoners who died at the Empat Lawang Police, it was not because they were mistreated by members (police), but due to fights between detainees," he said. If the incident occurs, sanctions will be applied referring to the SOP for guarding prisoners. Or it can be suspected of violating the rules as stated in Article 5 letter (a) PP number 2 of 2003 or Article 12 letter (e) Perpol number 7 of 2022 concerning the code of professional ethics and the Police code of ethics commission related to ethics "There must be sanctions or punishments," he said.