INDONESIA: Police officers torture a man to death and falsify his autopsy report

Dear friends, 

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that police from Slawi station in Central Java tortured a man to death shortly after his arrest and torture by Tegal station police. The victim was reportedly forced to confess to a crime that he did not commit, with the post mortem report fabricated by officials to clear the killers of blame. 

CASE DETAILS: (Based on interviews with relatives of the victim) 

According to information from KontraS, the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence, on April 14, a Mr. Carmadi was planting rice with his parents in Pakulaut village when they were approached by two plain clothed police officers. One was later identified as Aiptu Sutrisno (NRP or Nomor Registrasi Pegawai: 65120613). The police brought Mr. Carmadi to the Tegal Police Station and placed him in custody, but without a legally required summons letter. They told the man to give a statement regarding an attack that took place four days earlier in his village on someone belonging to the campaign team of the Partai Demokrasi Indonesia Perjuangan (PDI–P) legislative candidate. 

The police took Mr. Carmadi to Slawi Hospital to meet with the attack victim Mr. Imron, and Mr. Imron’s brother; Mr. Imron reportedly told the officers that he knew Mr. Carmadi. His brother allegedly said that Mr. Carmadi was not the attacker. Yet on the same afternoon the detainee’s brother Mr. Subur and cousin Mr. Haryono visited him and saw that his head was bleeding, and that he was injured across his upper body. The injured man told them that officers had severely beaten him and that his tongue was torn, the left side of his body hurt badly and he couldn’t hear out of his left ear. He also told them that that he had confessed to having attacked Mr. Imron under duress, although he had not. Mr. Subur demanded that the police should arrange medical treatment but nothing was done so the two men stayed at the police station for most of the following day. 

At 4pm the police, with no other leads, presented Mr. Carmadi’s parents with an official order for his detention. He was moved to the police station at Slawi. On April 16 during a family visit the victim told them that he had been vomiting ever since the torture, and reportedly identified one of the police officers who had tortured him. 

At 10pm of the same day the local village head contacted Mr. Carmadi’s father, Mr. Kusnadi, to let him know that he had been summoned to the station by police, and he had been told by a head detective with the name Rudi, on arrival that Mr. Carmadi had fainted and fallen during an interrogation. He was taken to Slawi hospital where he died. On 17 April an autopsy was performed at the hospital and his body was taken home for burial. 

The family turned to the Division of Profession and Security, the internal disciplinary unit, which advised them to lodge a complaint with the head of the Criminal Investigation Division, and on May 4 Mr. Kusnadi and Mr. Haryono paid a visit to the Internal Affairs Department. At this point the detective was claiming that the autopsy showed death by suicide. However, after requesting the report, the family could see that the autopsy results and the police story did not match up with the wounds on Mr. Carmadi’s body, or the earlier claim that he had fainted under interrogation. The family also registered a report at the National Police Commission, the National Commission for Human Rights and the District Police in Tegal Central Java, but so far no legislative progress has been made. 

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

Along with the unlawful force used during interrogation, this case points to a grave series of procedural and legal errors involving officials, political party members and staff at various police stations. Though Mr. Carmadi may have been under suspicion, he was given no chance to defend himself and no semblance of a fair trial, those speaking in his defence were ignored, and he was tortured severely by officers and then given no access to medical treatment. He was finally beaten so severely that he died. There is no accountability, no responsibility and no demonstration here that police involved understand due process. Though the evidence points to his murder, no investigation has been done into the circumstances of his torture and death, and into claims, made by his family and friends, that the autopsy report was fabricated. 

This case is yet another example of what happens when a system of interrogation is neither transparent nor monitored by an institution with the power to ensure that due process is respected. It also shows the degenerative effects of this – the way that impunity can spread throughout law enforcers in a region. Throughout this process no officer has come forward with a credible account of Mr. Carmadi’s death. 

Human rights violations by the police are deeply institutionalized in Indonesia and sparely addressed. This is despite the Indonesian Government’s ratification of the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), which has begun to appear increasingly meaningless. Indonesia has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which means that it is legally bound by international law to protect the rights of its citizens to life, liberty and a fair trial (Article 9, Article 14) – and to vigorously address violations of these rights. The act of torture is still not punishable as a crime in Indonesian legislation. The Criminal Code (Penal Code) of Indonesia has to be reviewed in accordance with the Convention (CAT). 

Indonesian citizens have a legal right to protection from disproportionate police action under interrogation, and the right to file a lawsuit concerning the lawfulness of his/her detention and physical action that could be deemed as disproportionate. 

SUGGESTED ACTION: 

Please write to the Indonesian authorities listed below to demand an immediate investigation into actions taken by police of the Tegal and Slawi police stations of Central Java, and to challenge the lack of political will behind the ratification of CAT in Indonesia. 

The AHRC has written a separate letter to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Question of Torture calling for an intervention in this case. 

To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER