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Indonesia: Death penalty, castration for child rapists

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Tough new punishments aimed at combating alarming rate of child sex abuse, but activists say measures will not work.

Protests against sexual violence increased after the gang rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl [EPA]

Protests against sexual violence increased after the gang rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl [EPA]

by Al Jazeera

Indonesia’s introduction of tougher punishments for child sex offenders, including the death penalty and chemical castration, has won public applause – but activists are warning that the measures will not serve as a deterrent.

President Joko Widodo signed a decree on Wednesday introducing the harsher penalties, which also include fitting monitoring devices to offenders after their release from jail, in response to public anger at the fatal gang-rape of a schoolgirl.

The 14-year-old was snatched by a group of drunken men and boys on western Sumatra island in April and was found days later in woods, tied up and naked.

The case sparked a national debate about sexual violence and as more reports of sex attacks emerged, pressure mounted on the government to take action.

The new punishments mostly won praise in Indonesia, where there is strong backing for the death penalty, with members of the public and politicians voicing support.

“Castration is intended to have a deterrent effect and prevent repeat sexual offences,” said Abdul Malik Haramain, a politician from the Islamic party the National Awakening Party, which is part of the ruling coalition.

He insisted that castration would not violate human rights, as offenders would go through a legal process before the punishment was handed down.

Activists push back

Nevertheless, activists were unhappy, suggesting the punishments were a knee-jerk reaction.

Hartoyo, a prominent gay rights activist who has campaigned against the new punishments, said the regulation amounted to an “act of vengeance”.

“It only shows that the government is panicking and has no real understanding about sexual violence,” added the campaigner, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

Nur Kholis, of the National Commission on Human Rights, said his group was generally against the death penalty and did not believe that castration would have a deterrent effect.

The presidential decree brings the new punishments immediately into effect, although parliament could later overturn them.

The death penalty can be handed down to child rapists where the victim has died or suffered serious mental or physical injury, while chemical castration can be used in cases of repeat child sex offenders.

Under previous laws, the maximum sentence for rape – including of a minor – was 14 years in jail.

Indonesia has already faced much criticism for its use of capital punishment, sparking outrage last year when it put seven foreign drug convicts to death by firing squad.

The government did not give any further details on the electronic monitoring devices. Local media previously reported that a microchip could be implanted in child sex offenders’ legs on their release from jail.

Boat capsizes off Malaysia, drowning 13 Indonesians

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Boat carrying about 30 people goes down as search-and-rescue operation hampered by rough seas.

A search-and-rescue operation was under way but it was hampered by high tides and choppy seas [Wallace Woon/EPA]

A search-and-rescue operation was under way but it was hampered by high tides and choppy seas [Wallace Woon/EPA]

by Al Jazeera

Malaysian police said 13 bodies, believed to be Indonesian migrants, were found washed ashore after their boat capsized in bad sea conditions.

The bodies of four men and nine women were discovered on a beach in southern Johor state by members of the public early on Tuesday, Rahmat Othman, the district police chief, said.

Authorities found an overturned wooden boat not far from the beach, which had probably capsized before dawn.

Rahmat said that the boat was believed to be carrying 30 to 35 people, most probably Indonesians trying to sneak into the country.

A search-and-rescue operation was under way but was hampered by high tides and choppy seas, he said.

Such tragedies are not uncommon in Malaysia. Many Indonesians are willing to risk their lives by travelling on boats believed to be old and unsafe to work in Malaysia illegally, or to return to their hometowns.

Indonesia names ‘mastermind’ of Jakarta attacks

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Police say Indonesian Bahrun Naim working for ISIL funded deadly attack that killed two civilians and five attackers.

jakarta-attack

by Al Jazeera

Police have named an Indonesian, Bahrun Naim, as the mastermind of Thursday’s deadly attack in Jakarta’s main business district after it arrested three men in a pre-dawn raid.

The arrests on Friday came less than 24 hours after the shooting and bombing rampage, the first such attack in the world’s most populous Muslim nation since 2009, which killed seven people. Five of the dead were the attackers themselves.

Police said Naim, who spent one year in jail for illegal possession of weapons in 2011, funded the attack. He is now believed to be in Syria fighting for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

“His vision is to unite all ISIS-supporting elements in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines,” Jakarta police chief Tito Karnavian said.

The police chief of Depok, where the arrests were made, told Metro TV that the men – which he described as a bomb-maker, a firearms expert and a preacher – were not linked to the Jakarta attack.

Raids were also under way across other parts of the populous island of Java and on other islands to round up suspects behind the attack, Reuters reported.

“Now we are sweeping in and outside Java, because we have captured several members of their group, and have identified them,” National Police spokesman Anton Charliyan told Reuters.

At least 20 people were wounded when at least five attackers opened fire near a Starbucks coffee house in the city. Those killed included an Indonesian and a Canadian.

Officials said the attackers were armed with light weapons and suicide belts. Six blasts occurred about 50 metres apart in the central business district, which also houses a United Nations office.

The attacks were claimed by the ISIL group in a statement on Thursday, in which the group claimed it had killed 15 people.

Al Jazeera’s Sohail Rahman, reporting from Jakarta, said many circumstances surrounding the attacks on Thursday remained unclear.

“There’s not a state of emergency but certainly a heightened level of alert … three individuals are being questioned at the moment. Whether there were any that got away is one line of inquiry.

“Who are they, where did they come from, how did they get into Jakarta, who helped them get in, did anyone house them?

“The munitions that were used, the rifles and the explosives, where did all of that come from? That’s what’s being looked into by investigators.”

Jakarta attacks: ISIL claims responsibility

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Police in Indonesia say ISIL behind coordinated bomb and gun attacks in business district that left seven dead.

Police were deployed near the site where one explosion went off, as local media reported more blasts in other parts of the city [Dita Alangkara/AP]

Police were deployed near the site where one explosion went off, as local media reported more blasts in other parts of the city [Dita Alangkara/AP]

by Al Jazeera

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group has claimed responsibility for the coordinated bomb and gun attacks in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, a news agency linked to ISIL reported on Thursday.

At least seven people, including five attackers, were killed in the explosions and gun battle between police and the attackers in the central business district of the city.

Tito Karnavian, the Jakarta police chief, said ISIL was “definitely” behind the attack.

Karnavian told Reuters news agency that Indonesian ISIL fighter Bahrun Naim, who is believed to be in Syria, was “planning this for a while. He is behind this attack.”

Earlier, police told Al Jazeera that ISIL had made specific threats before Thursday’s attacks.

Six blasts occurred about 50 metres apart in the central business district, which also houses a United Nations office.

At least 20 people were injured in the security operations at the Sarinah shopping complex on Thamrin Street. Police said the attack had ended and that security forces were in control of the area.

There were conflicting reports on the number of casualties as the police battled the fighters.

Earlier, tweets from the account of Jeremy Douglas, regional representative of the UN office on Drugs and Crime for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, described a bomb and “serious” exchanges of gunfire on the street outside his office.

Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen, reporting from Jakarta, said a police post was destroyed in a grenade blast and that sporadic gunfire was heard in the downtown area of the capital.

“Six gunmen on motorbikes entered the downtown area carrying long rifles, shooting into the crowd, with some carrying explosives,” Vaessen said. “One of the gunman shot a police officer from close range.”

Some gunmen on motorbikes reportedly escaped, police sources told Al Jazeera.

“Witnesses told Al Jazeera that they found nails on the streets near the affected area, indicating that the fragments came from the explosives used in the attacks,” Vaessen said.

The attacks caused panic and prompted a security lockdown and enhanced checks in several areas in the city of 10 million.

“The police are still investigating, so we don’t know how and why the attack happened. There were at least six explosions, and so far it looks like the police was the target,” our correspondent said.

Presidential statement

Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who was on a working visit in the West Java town of Cirebon, condemned the brazen attacks.

“This act is clearly aimed at disturbing public order and spreading terror among people,” Jokowi said in statement on television.

Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, has been a victim of several bombing attacks in the past, claimed by Islamic groups.

Thursday’s attacks, however, were the first major incidents in Indonesia’s capital since the 2009 bombings of two hotels that killed seven people and injured more than 50.

The attacks come two days after jailed Islamic leader Abu Bakar Bashir appealed to a court to have his conviction for funding a “terrorist training camp” overturned.

The 77-year-old leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah network filed a judicial review of his 2011 conviction, when he was sentenced to 15 years in jail for setting up the camp in Aceh province. A higher court later cut the sentence to nine years.

I am not scared of threat from rival gang: Chhota Rajan

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Chhota-Rajan

Bali: Underworld don Chhota Rajan today said he was not scared of threats to his life from rival gangs, including from Dawood Ibrahim, even as the Indonesia Police has provided him with special commando protection.

“I am not scared,” he said when reporters asked him if he was scared of threats to his life from rival gangs, including one headed by Dawood.

Arrested on arrival from Australia on Sunday, Rajan made the comments while being whisked away by police.

Bali Police spokesman Hery Wiyanto said they were aware of the threats faced by Rajan and he has been placed with special commandos for protection.

“We have all the measures in place to ensure that the prisoner’s security is not compromised. Since he is a foreigner, we have heightened security for him,” he told reporters.

Wiyanto said 55-year-old Rajan, whose original name is Rajendra Sadashiv Nikhalje, seems to be doing fine and there is no particular behavioural problem with him. “If he is under pressure, he is not showing,” he said.

Bali Police Commissioner Reinhard Nainggolan said Rajan, once close confidant-turned-rival of underworld ganglord Dawood, repeatedly pleaded before the interrogators to free him as he wanted to go to Zimbabwe.

Nainggolan said the mafia don was medically fit, thus contradicting reports of him suffering from multiple ailments.

Asked when he would be deported to India, where he is one of the most wanted criminals, Wiyanto said the Bali Police was waiting for a team of officials from India to interrogate Rajan first.

“We are waiting (for the Indian team). We will coordinate with the Indian authorities to formulate on how to deport Chhota Rajan back to India,” he said.

Bali Police commissioner Nainggolan said arrest of Rajan was a serious law enforcement operation under the supervision of the Interpol.

Giving details about the circumstances leading to Rajan’s arrest, he said they had information from the Indonesia Interpol that someone with the name Mohan Kumar has to be arrested based on the passport number.

“(When we got him) We told him not to worry if he cooperates with us. We told him about the Red Corner Notice. We told him that your photo provided is the same. He wanted my help to set him free,” he said.

Asked whether Rajan was accompanied by someone else also, Nainggolan said Rajan came to Bali alone and the arrest was made in Bali as the Interpol was informed by Australia that they cannot arrest someone only on the basis of Red Corner Notice.

Asked whether it was suspicious for the Indonesian authorities to find Rajan alone as police, rival gangs and mafias were looking for him, he said “of course it is very suspicious”.

“When we caught him, he looked scared…He is smoking constantly,” Nainggolan said.
Wiyanto said Rajan’s interrogation in Bali would be confined only to questioning on fake identity charges.

“Enquiry will be confined to ascertain whether the identity is true or not and to ensure that we did not arrest the wrong person,” he said.

Chhota Rajan, one of India’s most wanted gangster, was arrested in Bali, Indonesia, on a Red Corner Notice issued by Interpol after eluding law enforcement agencies for over two decades.

The arrest was made on a tip off from Australian police that Rajan, the powerful aide-turned-rival of terrorist Dawood Ibrahim, has flown from Sydney to Bali.

(PTI)

Home Ministry confirms arrest of Chhota Rajan in Indonesia

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Gangster Chhota Rajan arrested in Bali. Photo: NCB-Interpol Indonesia

Gangster Chhota Rajan arrested in Bali. Photo: NCB-Interpol Indonesia

New Delhi: Fugitive Chhota Rajan, wanted over a series of murders in India, has been arrested in Indonesia after decades on the run, police said on Monday.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh and CBI confirmed the arrest of underworld don Chhota Rajan in Indonesia. “Bali Police arrested Chhota Rajan yesterday at CBI’s request made through Interpol,” said CBI Director Anil Sinha.

The CBI in its official statement said, “At the request of CBI (Interpol) India, the Bali police has arrested an Indian national, Mohan Kumar on 25 October 2015. Mohan Kumar alias Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje alias Chhota Rajan is a fugitive and CBI has been pursuing the matter with Australian authorities. This is a good and close cooperation between India, Australia and Indonesia. We thank Indonesia and Australia for their prompt action at our request. Further action will be taken as required under the law.”

Acting on a tip-off from Australian police, Indonesian authorities detained Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje, alias ‘Chhota Rajan’ on Sunday as he arrived in the popular resort island of Bali from Sydney, Bali police spokesman Heri Wiyanto told AFP.

The 55-year-old Nikalje, an alleged crime boss in India, had been on the run for two decades, Wiyanto said, with Interpol flagging him as a wanted man back in 1995.

“We received information from police in Canberra yesterday (Sunday) about the red notice for a murderer,” he said.

“We arrested the man at the airport yesterday. What we know is that this man was suspected to have carried out 15 to 20 murders in India.”

Bali police were coordinating with Interpol and Indian authorities, Wiyanto said, adding it was likely Nikalje would be deported to India.

A spokesperson for Australian Federal Police said Interpol in Canberra had alerted Indonesian authorities “who apprehended Nikalje at the request of Indian authorities”.

The federal police confirmed last month that Nikalje was living in Australia under another identity and had been in discussions with Indian authorities, the spokesperson said, but would not provide further details.

Interpol’s website states that Nikalje was born in Mumbai and was wanted for multiple charges including murder and possession and use of illegal firearms.

(Agencies)

Chhota Rajan arrested in Bali, says report; others say it’s Cyanide Mohan

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Chhota-Rajan

Jakarta: Indonesian police officials said that they have arrested a wanted criminal from India in Bali but there was little clarity on whether it was gangster Chhota Rajan, who has been on the run for decades, or serial killer Mohan Kumar better known as ‘Cyanide Mohan’.

Acting on a tip-off from Australian police, Indonesian authorities detained Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje better known as Chhota Rajan on Sunday as he arrived in the popular resort island of Bali from Sydney, Bali police spokesman Heri Wiyanto told media.

 

The 55-year-old Nikalje, an gangster from India, had been on the run for two decades, Wiyanto said, with Interpol flagging him as a wanted man back in 1995.

“We received information from police in Canberra yesterday (Sunday) about the red notice for a murderer,” he said.

“We arrested the man at the airport yesterday. What we know is that this man was suspected to have carried out 15 to 20 murders in India.”

Tribun Regional reported that the person arrested was Mohan Kumar but the photograph used to identify him bears closer resemblance to Nikalje.

However, another police official said that the arrested individual was Mohan Kumar, a former Indian primary school teacher, facing the death penalty for the murders of 20 young women.

Mohan Kumar is accused of using cyanide to kill the women from 2003 to 2009. A court in the southern Indian city of Mangalore sentenced him to death in December 2013.

Bali police were coordinating with Interpol and Indian authorities, Wiyanto said, adding it was likely Nikalje would be deported to India.

A spokesperson for Australian Federal Police said Interpol in Canberra had alerted Indonesian authorities “who apprehended Nikalje at the request of Indian authorities”.

The federal police confirmed last month that Nikalje was living in Australia under another identity and had been in discussions with Indian authorities, the spokesperson said, but would not provide further details.

Interpol’s website states that Nikalje was born in the Indian city of Mumbai, and was wanted for multiple charges including murder and possession and use of illegal firearms.

However, the official from Denpasar said that they had arrested Kumar based on a red corner notice from Interpol.

Kumar was arrested Sunday after arriving at Bali’s airport from Sydney, based on a red corner notice from Interpol and following a tip from Australian authorities, said Denpasar Police chief detective Reinhard Habonaran Nainggolan.

Media in India have portrayed Kumar, 56, known as Cyanide Mohan, as a serial killer who preyed on women looking for marriage.
Nainggolan said police were questioning Kumar and coordinating with Indian diplomats.

He said Kumar told police that he had been hiding in Australia for years to avoid arrest, and had planned a 15-day vacation in Bali.

Kumar faces possible deportation, which could happen in days, or extradition, which could take more than a month, Nainggolan said.

(Agencies)

No survivors in Indonesia plane crash, officials say

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Search officials say all 54 on board Trigana Air passenger plane dead, as they find black box on the crash site.

The aircraft was also carrying about $470,000 destined for remote villages [AP]

The aircraft was also carrying about $470,000 destined for remote villages [AP]

by Al Jazeera

Search and rescue teams have found the flight recorder for a Trigana Air passenger aircraft that crashed in eastern Indonesia, killing all 54 on board, according to officials.

“At 1:40 local time the Trigana Air black box was found,” Transportation Ministry official Julius Arivada Barata told the Reuters news agency by text message on Tuesday.

Major-General Heronimus Guru, operations director at Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency, told a news conference in the capital, Jakarta, on the same day that all passengers on the plane were dead and their remains were being put into body bags and recovered.

Officials have declined to comment on the cause of Sunday’s crash until the results of an investigation by the national transport safety committee, but Guru said the terrain in Indonesia’s easternmost province may have been a factor.

“There’s a possibility the aircraft hit a peak and then fell into a ravine because the place that it was found is steep,” Guru said.

Earlier, the National Search and Rescue Agency said the twin turboprop ATR-42-300 probably hit a peak on Sunday before crashing into a ravine in the Bintang Mountains district, about seven nautical miles from Oksibil.

ATR is a joint venture between Airbus and Alenia Aermacchi, a subsidiary of Italian aerospace firm Finmeccanica.

Plane was carrying money

There were 44 adult passengers, five children and infants and five crew on the short-haul flight from provincial capital Jayapura south to Oksibil town.

The aircraft was also carrying about $470,000 destined for remote villages, as part of an assistance programme. There was no suggestion the money was somehow linked to the crash.

Officials from Trigana were not immediately available to respond to questions from Reuters. The airliner has been placed on a European Union list of banned carriers since 2007 over safety or regulatory concerns.

All on board were Indonesian, officials said.

The aircraft made its first flight 27 years ago, the Aviation Safety Network says. Trigana Air Service has a fleet of 14 aircraft, aged 26.6 years on average, according to the airfleets.net database.

Trigana has had 14 serious incidents since it began operations in 1991, online database Aviation Safety Network says. Besides the latest crash, it has written off 10 aircraft.

Indonesia has a patchy aviation record, with other two major crashes in the past year.

In December, an AirAsia flight went down in the Java Sea, killing all 162 aboard. More than 100 people died in June in a crash of a military transport plane.

Indonesian plane ‘was carrying nearly $500,000 in cash’

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Search plane spots debris believed from crashed aircraft with 54 people on board, as rescuers prepare search.

The debris thought to be from the Trigana Air Service plane was sighted in the heavily-forested Bintang Mountains region [EPA]

The debris thought to be from the Trigana Air Service plane was sighted in the heavily-forested Bintang Mountains region [EPA]

by Al Jazeera

An Indonesian passenger plane that crashed at the weekend in Papua was transporting about 6.5 billion rupiah ($470,000) in cash to distribute to poor families in the eastern province, a post office official has said.

“Four of our personnel were escorting the funds,” said Haryono, the head of Jayapura post office, who goes by one name. The money was in four bags, he added, according to the AFP news agency.

An Indonesian search and rescue plane spotted debris believed to be from the aircraft that went missing on Sunday with 54 people on board in Papua province.

The wreckage thought to be from the Trigana Air Service plane was sighted on Monday morning in the heavily-forested Bintang Mountains region, local police chief Yunus Wally said.

Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen, reporting from Jakarta, said a rescue plane had identified smoking wreckage and another smaller plane was on its way to get a closer look.

“At the same time two teams have gone overland but it’s a very mountainous area and they’re not sure how long this journey is going to take to get there,” our correspondent said.

A helicopter may also be sent – depending on what the smaller plane finds – to see if it is possible to land near the crash site.

The Trigana Air Service ATR 42-300 plane’s disappearance is the latest in a string of aviation disasters in Southeast Asia.

The passengers on the plane, reported to be an ATR-42 model, include 44 adults, two children, three toddlers and five crew members.

Hours after the plane’s disappearance, villagers in eastern Indonesia’s Papua region claimed to have found the wreckage, the transport ministry’s director-general of air transportation, Suprasetyo, who goes by one name, said.

“The plane has been found [by villagers]. According to residents, the flight had crashed into a mountain. Verification is still in process,” Suprasetyo said.

According a tweet by Indonesia’s National Agency Search and Rescue agency, the aircraft lost contact while flying over the remote eastern Papua region at 2:55pm local time.

The plane had been scheduled to land at a small airport in Oksibil around 3pm local time (06.00 GMT).

Oksibil is a remote town near the country’s border with Papua New Guinea.

Our correspondent said reports indicated that “the weather was very bad” in Papua at the time the plane was in the air.

“It is also known as quite a spooky area to fly in and planes go missing there.”

On Wednesday, a Cessna propeller plane operated by Indonesian company Komala Air crashed in Papua’s Yahukimo district, killing one person and seriously injuring the five others on board.

Officials suspect that the crash was caused by bad weather.

 

Powerful earthquake hits Indonesia’s Papua

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Magnitude 7.0 quake strikes west of provincial capital Jayapura.

earthquake Papua

by Al Jazeera

A magnitude 7.0 earthquake has hit Indonesia’s Papua region, the US Geological Survey says.

The quake struck at 6.41am on Monday, almost 250km west of the provincial capital Jayapura.

No tsunami warning was issued after the quake, which struck inland, and Indonesia’s national disaster agency said there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

“The quake was felt very strongly for four seconds,” disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told the AFP news agency.

“Residents panicked and rushed out of their homes.”

Nugroho said there were no initial reports of damage but added the region around the epicentre, in Indonesia’s remote east, was difficult to reach, and data was still being collected.

The Earthquake-Report monitoring website said the area has “steep mountain ranges and its vegetation is rainforest, which means that the chance of dangerous landslides is real”.

Weak shaking was reportedly felt in Jayapura for a few seconds.

Both Indonesian authorities and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there was no threat of any tsunami waves from the quake, which occurred beneath a jungle.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where tectonic plates collide, causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity.

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