Whatever The Reason, The Ministry Of Law And Human Rights Must Be Responsible For The Deadly Tangerang Prison Fire

Tangerang Class I Prison Burns / IST

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Law and Human Rights is the party responsible for the Tangerang Class I prison fire incident. The prison fire left 44 people dead.

The reason is that Ministry of Law and Human Rights is an institution appointed to handle inmates or prisoners who are serving their sentences.

"The management (Ministry of Law and Human Rights) is in charge", said University of Indonesia (UI) policy observer, Arthur Josias Simon Runturambi, to VOI, Thursday, September 9.

Moreover, it is also contained in Law Number 12 of 1995 concerning Corrections and other laws related to the criminal justice system. So, said Josias, all matters relating to the inmates are the responsibility of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights.

"Either negligence or unpreparedness or there are other elements of violation that are the responsibility of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights", he said.

However, Josias did not want to be in a hurry to personally state who should be responsible. Because all of them have to wait for the police investigation process.

Later, if the investigation is completed and violations are found, then only those who must bear the consequences can be narrowed down. In fact, there should be sanctions given.

"Sanctions can start from administrative sanctions (transfer, removal) to criminal sanctions (if any and proven)", said Josias.

The Tangerang Class I prison caught fire on Wednesday, September 8, in the early hours of the morning. As a result, 44 inmates died due to the incident.

They could not save themselves because they were trapped in a holding cell. Because at that time their detention cell was locked.

So far, the cause of the fire is still being investigated. However, it is suspected that the cause was an electric short circuit.

However, as the investigation process progressed, the police found a suspected criminal act behind the fire incident. To prove it, 20 witnesses have been questioned.