APSN Banner

KontraS records 52 cases of unlawful killing by police in 2021

Source
Tempo - March 19, 2022

Arrijal Rachman, Jakarta – The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence's (KontraS) data showed that 52 people died in unlawful killing cases, or extrajudicial killing, done by the police institution in the period of December 2020 to December 2021.

The data did not include the shooting case of FPI members at Km 50 of Jakarta-Cikampek toll on December 6-7, 2020. The defendants of the case were acquitted by the judges of South Jakarta District Court on Friday, March 18.

Based on the report of KontraS' research and documentation division, of the 52 people, 15 were shot by the police for the attempt to escape, 12 were involved in a gunfight, and 8 were involved in a fight with sharp weapons. The rest were involved in hand-to-hand resistance, attempts to use firearms, attempts to seize weapons, personal problems, attempts to resist, until there was no resistance.

Those who died were recorded as perpetrators of theft as many as 7 people, perpetrators of robbery 7 people, perpetrators of murder 6 people, perpetrators of violence 6 people, drug dealers 5 people, non-criminal civilians 5 people, and the rest were drug couriers, robbers, fugitives, drug distributors, people with mental disorders, and demonstrators.

In that period, the cases included as extrajudicial killing occurred in North Sumatra (9 people), South Sumatra (9 people), Lampung (6 people), Banten (5 people).

Due to this matter, KontraS deputy coordinator Rivanlee Anandar feared that the acquittal of 2 police officers in the FPI shooting case would result in the recurrence of similar events.

He argued that the judiciary must be able to dismantle the unlawful killing practice further. Rivanlee viewed that the incident that occurred in Cikampek toll against FPI members was not a single event, but there were allegations of involvement of other parties that need to be uncovered.

"But the acquittal simplifies the issue of unlawful killing and the potential for recurrence of incidents of arbitrary use of weapons by the authorities will be even higher," Rivanlee asserted.

Source: https://en.tempo.co/read/1572782/kontras-records-52-cases-of-unlawful-killing-by-police-in-202

Country