Jakarta Globe, Farouk Arnaz, April 10, 2013
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The Bali
Police officer caught on video soliciting a Rp 200,000 ($21) bribe has not yet
been punished, while the Dutch national who recorded the transaction could face
criminal charges, police said on Tuesday.
Sr. Comr.
Hariadi, a spokesman for the Bali Police, told the Jakarta Globe that the
officer in question, Second Insp. Komang Sarjana from the Badung district
police, was still being investigated by the police’s internal affairs division.
“He is
being investigated for disciplinary violations. Nothing’s final yet because the
probe is still underway,” Hariadi said.
Sarjana
shot to infamy after a video was uploaded to YouTube last week that showed him
stopping Kees van der Spek, a journalist for the Dutch TV channel SBS6, for
riding a motorcycle without a helmet.
The video,
which as of Tuesday evening had garnered 1.26 million views and which van der
Spek was filming for a series on scams faced by Dutch tourists abroad, showed
Sarjana offering to “fine” the Dutchman Rp 200,000 in lieu of issuing him a
ticket that would have required him to go to court and pay a bigger fine.
He later
bought beers with some of the money, which he and another officer were seen
drinking with van der Spek, and also boasted of having taken Rp 400,000 from
two other tourists earlier in the day.
While Bali
Governor Made Mangku Pastika, himself a former chief of the provincial police,
has lauded van der Spek’s video as shining a light on “our ugly side,” the
current police chief, Insp. Gen. Arif Wachyunandi, has taken a different view.
Arif said
the video was clear evidence that van der Spek had bribed a law enforcement
officer, for which he should face criminal charges.
“Both the
recipient and the person who gives a bribe must be punished according to
prevailing laws,” he said on Monday.
“The legal
process [against van der Spek] is already underway.”
Another
video by van der Spek was uploaded to YouTube last Thursday in which one of the
men from the journalist’s team was shown handing $200 to a customs officer at
Denpasar’s Ngurah Rai International Airport to allow the crew to bring their
camera equipment into the country despite not having a filming permit.
Customs
officials have confirmed the incident and launched a probe. Other videos in the
collection “Safety tips for tourist when visiting Bali Paradise Island” show
van der Spek exposing some of the common tourist scams in the resort island.
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