Indonesian Prisons Chief Resigns After Drug Scheme Unveiled

Jakarta Globe, Erwin Sihombing & Farouk Arnaz, May 04, 2015

Soldiers guard the waters surrounding Nusakambangan prison island.
(Antara Photo/Idhad Zakaria)

Jakarta. The Indonesian government’s top official in charge of prisons handed in his resignation on Monday following the discovery last month that a drug kingpin on death row was continuing to run his empire from behind bars with the help of officials.

Handoyo Sudrajat, the Justice Ministry’s director general of corrections, said he had been unable to “impose enough supervision” and “impose tough reforms” in prisons across the country.

“I wasn’t successful in managing the prisons. This [resignation] is what I can do to show my responsibility,” Handoyo said on Monday.

Handoyo, previously a state auditor and later the head of graft prevention at the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), said he planned to retire.

His withdrawal comes just weeks after police arrested Freddy Budiman, a drug convict at the ostensibly high-security prison island of Nusakambangan, off the south coast of Central Java.

The arrest stemmed from the capture in March of one of Freddy’s alleged pushers, who told police that he was  still taking orders from the death-row inmate.

Freddy has since been transferred to a detention facility at the National Police’s detectives’ unit, where he is under constant surveillance.

Two guards at the prison island have also been arrested for helping him run his drug ring in exchange for promises of cash, cars and houses.

The National Police’s internal affairs unit has arrested an anti-narcotics officer on suspicion of taking bribes from Freddy, a police source said on Monday. The officer was previously involved in Freddy’s initial case.