Jakarta – The body of AM, a 13-year-old boy who was allegedly beaten to death by police officers in early June in Padang, West Sumatra, will be exhumed on Thursday, following the issuance of a permit from the police earlier this week.
Forensic doctors are slated to exhume AM's body on Thursday morning, with representatives of the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) present during the process, commissioner Dian Sasmita said.
"The commission team and I will fly to Padang today to watch the process tomorrow," Dian said on Wednesday, as quoted by kompas.com.
The police granted the victim's family's request for another autopsy on AM's body during a meeting with the House of Representatives Commission III overseeing legal affairs in Jakarta on Monday. Attending the meeting were AM's parents, accompanied by Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) and Padang Legal Aid Institute (LBH Padang) attorneys, as well as representatives of the Padang and West Sumatra Police.
During the meeting, West Sumatra Police general crime investigation director Sr. Comr. Andry Kurniawan handed over a copy of the exhumation letter to AM's family as well as House Commission III members.
House deputy speaker Sufmi Dasco Ahmad of Gerindra Party said during the meeting that the lawmakers had previously urged the police to immediately issue an exhumation order within two months of the burial. Otherwise, the body would decompose further and make it impossible to conduct an autopsy.
Pressure to exhume AM's body surfaced since earlier this month, with KPAI, LBH Padang and other civil groups sending letters to National Police Chief Gen. Listyo Sigit Prabowo as well as regional police requesting another autopsy on the victim.
Additional pressure for the exhumation came from the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), with commissioner Uli Parulian Sihombing issuing a statement on Monday that the first autopsy's results were not convincing enough to determine AM's cause of death.
"For better certainty [on the cause of death], we deem it necessary to conduct a second autopsy," Uli said in the statement.
The request came from the family as they refused to take the police's account that their son died from jumping from a 12-meter-high bridge to avoid police officers who were trying to arrest him and his friends for attempting to start a brawl.
AM's body was found under a bridge in Padang with multiple injuries on June 9. The police claimed after an autopsy that the boy died when his fractured ribs punctured his lungs after he jumped off the bridge.
West Sumatra Police chief Insp. Gen. Suharyono has denied the allegations of police brutality, arguing that there was insufficient evidence and witnesses to support the claims.
In early July, he said that investigators had closed their probe into AM's death by concluding that the boy died from his fatal injuries. But after public pressure for transparency on how the case was handled, Suharyono said that the case was still being investigated.
The police chief also said that investigators would find parties responsible for spreading the allegation of torture by police officers, claiming that police were "victims of a trial by the press".
AM's death attracted nationwide outrage and calls for police reform after the news reports about the alleged police brutality made rounds on social media.
During the Monday meeting at the Senayan legislative complex, House Commission III member Taufik Basari of NasDem Party said that lawmakers would continue to oversee the investigation into AM's death, including the alleged abuse of another teenager arrested in early June.
"I urge the police to prosecute the perpetrators, not just punish them," he said in a statement on Monday.
Source: https://asianews.network/doctors-to-exhume-boy-allegedly-killed-by-police-in-west-sumatra