Jakarta Globe, Erwin Sihombing, Jun 02, 2015
Jakarta. An
Indonesian prison guard caught allegedly trafficking 16 kilograms of crystal
methamphetamine will be entitled to his full lifetime benefits as a civil
servant following an “honorable” discharge.
Dedy
Romadi, from Bandung’s Banceuy Penitentiary, was given a public dismissal at a
ceremony at the Justice Ministry in Jakarta on Monday.
“With
respect to [any infractions committed as] a member of staff, he’s clear,”
Mualimin Abdi, the ministry’s director general of human rights, said at the
dismissal ceremony.
“With
respect to the law, he still has to answer to the police and the BNN [National
Narcotics Agency],” he added.
Dedy was
arrested in a BNN-led bust at a Central Jakarta mall on May 22 while allegedly
carrying out a drug transaction. He eventually led officers to a stash of 16.3
kilograms of crystal meth and 778 ecstasy pills.
He faces a
possible death sentence if convicted of trafficking, but the Justice Ministry,
which oversees the country’s prisons, appeared to take the case – the latest
involving a prison guard caught in the dealing or manufacture of narcotics –
much less seriously.
Mualimin,
who stripped Dedy of his prison guard jacket during the dismissal ceremony,
said the symbolism sent a “strong message” about the ministry’s attitude to
such offenses.
“I won’t
tolerate anyone who abuses their authority. Such people must be heavily
punished,” he said.
He did not
explain the gaping discrepancy between Dedy’s “abuse of authority” and the lack
of infractions cited in the guard’s dismissal.
The
“honorable” discharge effectively means that Dedy will continue to receive the
benefits to which a civil servant is entitled, including a pension and lifetime
health insurance – even if he goes to jail for drug smuggling.
For his
part, Dedy claims he was not dealing drugs but rather was collecting evidence
seized from inmates.
The bust
came just over a week since the arrest of a guard from the prison island of
Nusakambangan off Central Java, the site of 13 of the 14 executions carried out
so far this year – all involving drug convicts.
In that
arrest, officers caught Bayu Anggit Permana, a guard from the island’s Batu
Penitentiary, with 364 grams of meth. A prisoner at the island, one of several
on Nusakambangan, later admitted to paying Bayu to smuggle the drugs out of the
prison.
Police have
charge Bayu and Abdul with drug dealing – not trafficking – which carries a
sentence of 12 to 20 years.
Drug
seizures are common at prisons on Nusakambangan, where officials have a history
of being complicit in allowing prisoners to set up meth labs.
The island
was also the location for the executions on April 29 of eight convicted drug
offenders, seven of them foreign nationals, including Australians Andrew Chan
and Myuran Sukumaran.
In going
against international condemnation of the executions, President Joko Widodo
claimed Indonesia was in the grip of a “drug emergency” – based on a study
whose methodology has long been debunked by experts – and that the death
sentence served as a deterrent against would-be drug offenders.
The arrests
of Bayu and now Dedy – and countless other offenders in between – would seem to
suggest otherwise.
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