•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   
•    EYEWITNESS   

Police have vowed a full investigation of officers from the Cempaka Putih subprecinct station in Central Jakarta after 12 detainees managed to saw their way out a holding cell there in the early hours of Tuesday.

Sr. Comr. Rikwanto, the Jakarta Police spokesman, said the breakout occurred at about 2 a.m. He added that of the 12 men who escaped, two had since been recaptured at their homes.

“Of the others, six were in detention for drug-related offenses and the others for vehicle theft and pickpocketing,” he said.

He said they had escaped their cell by sawing through the three iron bars in the window of the toilet adjoining the cell. Police discovered two saws and a wrench left behind.

Sr. Comr. Angesta Romano Yoyol, the Central Jakarta Police chief, said there would be an investigation to find out how and why police had allowed these prohibited items to reach the detainees in their cell.

“We’re currently investigating, and it appears likely that the tools were smuggled to them by visitors, perhaps concealed in food packages or something similar,” he said.

He added that standard operating procedures dictated that all visitors and any items they brought with them be checked thoroughly by the jail guards.

Rikwanto said the fact that the tools had passed through undetected indicated a severe dereliction of duty on the part of the subprecinct police.

“There are rules in place, so we have to investigate why the officers on duty didn’t follow them,” he said.

He added police had established a special squad to work on recapturing the 10 detainees were still at large.

The two who were recaptured, drug offender Suwardi and Agus, a pickpocket, said they had been working on the escape for the past week, Rikwanto said.

“Their explanation was that they’d been sawing on those bars very slowly for a week,” he said.

“To dampen the sound of the sawing, they would run the tap in the bathroom and let the water splash on the floor.”

After removing the three bars, all 12 men inside the holding cell climbed out of the window and dropped down into the courtyard of a neighboring restaurant.

Once there, they gagged and bound the restaurant owner before running off. The owner only managed to free himself 15 minutes later and alert police next door to the escape.

The officer on guard duty outside the holding cells at the time, Adj. First Insp. Mutohar, was reportedly at his post, just seven meters away from the cells.

“When they checked the cell, the detainees were gone and all that was left were the tools,” Rikwanto said.

He added the investigation into the breakout would also look into why there were 12 detainees being held in a single cell, when regulations stipulated that the maximum capacity of a subprecinct station holding cell was 10.

However, he denied reports that the breakout had been facilitated by the fact that the cell was in poor condition, saying it was still considered secure, apart from the sawn-off bars.

“Officials check those cells regularly,” Rikwanto said.

“If that particular cell was considered no longer fit for use, for instance if the bars were rusted or the lock was missing, then it would have been turned into a storage room.”