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Pecalang ikut amankan Natal (photo by: Ni Komang Erviani)

Ni Komang Erviani, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar | Fri, 12/23/2011 7:55 AM

Bali Police chief Insp. Gen. Totoy Herawan Indra stated on Thursday that soldiers and Pecalang (traditional guards) would be involved in the massive security operation aimed at ensuring that the upcoming Christmas celebrations were incident-free.

“We will deploy all forces that we have to anticipate any possible threat of disturbance,” he said after inspecting the local police force in Puputan Margarana field in Renon, Denpasar.

The operation, code-named Operation Candle, will see a significant number of uniformed and well-equipped police and military officers deployed to 253 churches across Bali.

The police had also already notified the Desa Pekraman (customary villages) around those churches to place their respective Pecalang on alert. Comprised of selected male adult members of the banjar (traditional neighborhood organization) or Desa Pekraman, these volunteer-based traditional guards have won high praise in the past for protecting and securing their respective territories.

They have also regularly participated in securing the major religious events at mosques and churches, reaffirming the image of Bali as a tolerant and multi-cultural society.

The chief also disclosed that bomb squad units would be assigned to major churches. Several major churches lie in the island’s capital and there are at least three major churches in the island’s top tourism destination of Kuta.

These churches are frequented by foreign visitors and expatriates.

“We have identified the churches that will likely draw large congregations. We will adapt our security measures, including the number of personnel and type of unit attached to those specific churches,” he said.

“Not a single church will be left unguarded,” he vowed.

He said that Bali was among 14 provinces declared by the Indonesian National Police (INP) as
the top priority regions in the Christmas’ security operation. The 10-day Operation Candle will start on Dec. 23.

Among the top priority regions are Papua, Northeast Sulawesi, East Nusa Tenggara, North Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi and Jakarta. All have sizable Catholic and Christian populations.

“Bali is a priority because the Christmas celebrations here are not only attended by local Christians but also foreign visitors,” he said.

The police vowed to deploy uniformed officers to malls, arcades, tourism attractions and other places likely to draw large numbers of people during the celebration.

“So far, the security situation in Bali is OK. However, I urge the public to maintain their vigilance to anticipate any threat, including the threat of a terrorist attack,” he said.

After the brutal terrorist bombings in October 2002 and 2005, the local security forces have developed a habit of increasing their security measures at year-end.

Separately, Denpasar naval base commander Col. Wayan Suarjaya disclosed that two navy destroyers, KRI Untung Suropati and KRI Oswald Siahaan, and command ship KRI Multatuli would patrol the resort island’s waters during the year-end period.

“The ships will carry out inspections of ships and vessels in the island’s offshore areas to prevent the smuggling of persons and illegal contraband, including weapons and explosives,” he said.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/12/23/police-enlist-help-military-guards-secure-christmas.html

The Jakarta Post | Wed, 12/21/2011 8:46 AM

DENPASAR: Prosecutors at the Denpasar District Court have demanded the judges sentence a South African woman, Nomakorinte Christabell Nyolukana, to 14 years in jail for smuggling 1 kilogram of crystal methamphetamine.

The demand is much lighter than the sentencing stipulated in the Narcotics Law, which stipulates life imprisonment or the death penalty.

At the trial’s hearing on Monday, prosecutor I Putu Gede Astawa said that the 46-year-old woman had been proven guilty of illegally importing the narcotics.

Presiding judge John Tony Hutauruk said that the facts and the evidence revealed during the trial process have proven the defendant’s involvement in drug smuggling.

The trial was adjourned until next week to hear the judges’ decision.

Nyolukana was arrested by Customs and Excise officers at the Ngurah Rai International Airport on Sept. 3, as she arrived from Doha, Qatar.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/12/21/s-african-woman-drug-case-faces-14-years.html

The Jakarta Post | Mon, 12/19/2011 11:10 PM

DENPASAR: Bali Police deputy chief Brig. Gen. Ketut Untung Yoga Ana has asked the island’s hotels and entertainment spots to be very selective in using fireworks during New Year’s and Christmas celebrations.

“The fireworks used must have importation or production licenses from the National Police and the size should not exceed 2 inches [5 centimeters],” he said, adding that any firework larger than 2 inches would require purchase and use licenses issued directly by the National Police headquarters in Jakarta.

He stated that fireworks were a controlled substance as stipulated by National Police chief regulation No.2/2008 on the control and supervision of explosive materials.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/12/19/island-beat-hotels-told-use-licensed-fireworks.html

Ni Komang Erviani, The Jakarta Post, Kuta | Mon, 12/19/2011 10:54 PM

Kuta Police on Saturday nabbed two suspects allegedly involved in the stabbing of two Australians at a discotheque in Legian, Kuta.

The first suspect, identified as Made J.A., 28, is a security guard at the Bounty discotheque, while the second suspect reportedly was J.A.’s friend, an Australian identified as 28-year-old J.L.

JA surrendered to the police at around 3:30 p.m. Saturday, while Jl. was arrested at a hotel on Jl. Poppies in Legian, Kuta, Police chief Adj. Comr. Gede Ganefo told reporters on Sunday.

“A witness recognized J.A., so we have contacted his friends and relatives, telling them to convince him to surrender. We told them that unless he surrendered immediately, we will take action against him,”

The incident, in which two Australians were stabbed, was apparently due to a misunderstanding, Ganefo said.

It started when J.A. came out of the discotheque’s rest room and accidentally nudged a visitor named Sentana. A hostile verbal exchange between the two men immediately ensued.

J.L. saw the incident and spontaneously approached them to defend J.A. and started a fight with Sentana.

“J.A. tried to help J.L. He took a knife and tried to stab Sentana several times,” Ganefo said, adding that J.A. swung the knife in a chaotic way that failed to inflict dangerous wounds on Sentana.

The knife, however, injured two Australians named Christopher Mete and Jake Benjamin Whitehead, who were standing nearby.

Mete was stabbed in the stomach, while Jake was injured on his right chest.

Sentana was injured on his left hand. Mudarti, who was trying to rescue Sentana, was also injured.

The police seized certain items of evidence, including the suspect’s blood-stained cloth.

However, the police have yet to find the knife.

“The suspect said he threw the knife in an alley beside the Sky Garden [a nearby discotheque]. We have searched for it, but we haven’t found it,” Ganefo said.

The two suspects would be charged under Criminal Code article 370, which carries a five-year sentence.

As of Sunday, Mete was still hospitalized at Sanglah, while Jake has returned to his home country after being treated at BIMC hospital in Kuta.

The incident was not the first at the Bounty discotheque. In 2009, a New Zealand man died in a brawl involving the discotheque’s employees.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/12/19/police-nab-suspects-over-stabbing-case.html

Ni Komang Erviani, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar | Mon, 12/12/2011 11:22 PM

An Australian woman whose holiday in Bali was abruptly cut short by a violent attempted rape has identified the suspect after browsing dozens of photographs emailed to her by the South Denpasar Police.

The positive identification of a local motorcycle taxi driver led to the arrest of the suspect, who later confessed that the Australian woman was not his first victim.

The suspect was identified as I Wayan Kirnawan aka Pogot, 36, an unregistered motorcycle taxi driver. He was arrested on Monday, Dec. 5, in Pemogan but the police waited until Sunday, Dec. 11 before releasing any information to the public.

“He usually offers his service to foreign visitors in Kuta,” South Denpasar Police chief Adj. Comr. Leo Martin Pasaribu said.

The victim was identified as 24-year-old Brooke Hall, a resident of New South Wales. The incident took place at Dec. 2 at around 1 a.m. local time.

The victim had just left a Legian nightclub when the suspect approached her and offered her his motorcycle taxi (ojek) services.

The victim agreed and told the suspect to take her to Padma Hotel, where she was staying during her holiday.

The victim became suspicious when the suspect took her to a different place, later identified as the mangrove forest in Suwung, South Denpasar.

Fearing for her safety, the victim jumped off the motorcycle and ran away. The suspect chased and later assaulted her.

He tried to rape the victim but the latter defended herself and managed to escape.

The suspect, however, took her purse and made away with a digital camera and cash.

The victim immediately filed a police report before leaving the island for Australia.

Responding to the report, the South Denpasar Police launched a massive intelligence operation to find the perpetrator.

Plainclothes officers were sent to numerous places known as motorcycle taxi terminals and popular hangouts for ojek drivers.

The officers succeeded in not only collecting the personal data of the drivers but also in photographing their faces.

Toward the end of the operation, the police had in their possession the pictures of 72 registered and 23 unregistered drivers.

“Since the victim had returned to Australia, we emailed all these pictures to her. The electronic correspondence gave us a valuable result when she identified one of the pictures as the picture of the suspect,” Leo said, adding that his men immediately cast a net to arrest

the man.

During the interrogation, the suspect confessed that he had committed a similar crime on Sept. 24 at around 3 a.m. when he assaulted and tried to rape Beatrice Victoria Hendricks McGuinness, a Singaporean residing in Australia.

The victim fought back and the suspect only got away with her bag.

The police will charge the suspect under articles 365, 285 and 53 of the Criminal Code on violence, theft and attempted rape. If found guilty, he could face a maximum sentence of 13 years in prison.

The suspect expressed remorse over his behavior, claiming that he was drunk at the time and that he desperately needed cash to pay off his gambling debts.

The Jakarta Post | Wed, 12/07/2011 11:41 AM

DENPASAR: Udayana Military Command military police detained an Army corporal following a shooting at a popular bar in Kuta that left a security guard critically wounded.

The soldier was identified only as A.M., who is an officer with the intelligence unit at the Wirasatya military base.

“The soldier is being interrogated at the military police headquarters to establish the nature and motive of the shooting,” Udayana Military Command spokesperson Col. Wing Handoko said on Tuesday.

Udayana Military Command oversees military affairs in Bali and West Nusa Tenggara while the Wirasatya military base is responsible for military affairs in Bali.

The shooting took place prior to dawn Monday outside the Santa Fe Bar in Legian, Kuta. Details about it are sketchy.

Witnesses said that the incident took place after a brawl between several of the bar’s patrons.

The bar’s security guards broke up the fight and one of them, identified as Wayan Surata, was escorting a patron out of the bar when he was shot.

Surata is being treated at Sanglah General Hospital’s emergency unit.

The attending physicians are concentrating on stabilizing his condition before performing surgery to extract the bullet from his abdomen.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/12/07/soldier-arrested-after-bar-shooting.html

Ni Komang Erviani, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar | Wed, 12/07/2011 11:37 AM |

The Bali Corruption Court got tough during its first trial on Tuesday by ordering that a woman defendant be kept in custody for the duration of the trial with the presiding judge vowing a speedy trial.

Regional corruption courts were established in provinces across Indonesia following a Constitutional Court ruling in 2006 stating that the corruption court in Jakarta lacked both the legal foundation and jurisdiction to process corruption cases from regions outside Jakarta. The performance of the regional courts have been criticized recently for being soft on defendants. Acquittals of graft suspects in Samarinda and Bandung caused public uproar and growing demands for the regional corruption courts to be dissolved.

The Bali Corruption Court started its debut trial in a room of the Denpasar District Court. The first case to go to trial was related to the provincial transportation agency’s road signs development project, which covered 80 kilometers of road in Denpasar, Singaraja and Amlapura. The primary defendant is Endah Suparsetyaningsih, 47, the director of Pradana Tehnik, the company that won the bid for the Rp 2.14 billion (US$237,540) project. Seven other individuals have also been indicted in the case.

Prosecutor I Made Tangkas accused Endah and scores of the agency’s officials of doctoring the project’s final report to make it appear that the project had been completed on time. However, a field inspection carried out by detectives, experts from Udayana University and an agency team revealed that the project had not been completed.

“There are 20.5 kilometers of road that have yet to be equipped with proper signs. In this case, the state suffered a loss of Rp 942 million,” he said.

Endah was charged under articles of the Corruption Law that carry sentences of 15 years to life imprisonment.

“The defendant breached the law to gain financial benefit for herself and her corporation,” he said.

The defendant claimed that she did not understand the substance of the indictment. Presiding judge IGB Komang Wijaya Adhi then announced that the defendant would be taken to the detention center immediately after the hearing.

“I order the prosecutor to place the defendant in custody for the next 20 days,” he said, adding that the panel of judges had the authority to extend the detention period by up to 60 days.

photo by: Agung Parameswara

Ni Komang Erviani, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar | Mon, 12/05/2011 11:20 PM

A 14-year-old Australian boy convicted of marijuana possession was deported at pre-dawn on Sunday after completing his two-month jail sentence. The boy and his family left the resort island at 1:05 a.m. local time aboard Virgin Blue DJ4146 flight heading for Sydney.

His homeward journey started on Sunday morning when he left the immigration detention facility in Jimbaran. Escorted by uniformed officials from the Denpasar Prosecutor’s Office and accompanied by his father, the boy was transported in a car to Kerobokan, the island’s largest correctional facility, to sign discharge documents and undergo the official release process.

The entourage arrived at Kerobokan at around 7:30 a.m. local time.

The boy, identified as L.A.M., was wearing a balaclava to cover his face.

His legal team, led by M. Rifan, accompanied him throughout the process, including having his photograph and fingerprints taken.

The process culminated when he signed the release papers.

“He has undergone all the required processes and is officially released today,” Kerobokan chief warden Siswanto announced.

Scores of immigration officials then picked up the boy and transported him to the immigration office at Ngurah Rai International airport.

At immigration, L.A.M. and his father were interviewed by the officials and underwent an immigration legal process related to his deportation.

After waiting for almost four hours at the immigration office, L.A.M. was finally taken into the airport’s international departure terminal.

The immigration authority placed the boy on its no-entry list. He would not be allowed to enter Indonesia for the next six months.

L.A.M.’s chief legal counsel, M. Rifan, stated that the boy was excited and joyful about his release.

“He was extremely happy knowing that he soon would be reunited with his family and friends. He was still feeling shock over the ordeal, but overall he was very happy,” Rifan said.

He also expressed satisfaction toward the manner with which L.A.M. was treated during his prison time, in particular the authority’s willingness to place him in a separate detention facility.

“We hope this will set a good precedent and that the authorities will follow this example in dealing with child inmates in Indonesia,” he said.

Throughout the trial L.A.M. was not detained at Kerobokan prison or the special detention facility for juvenile offenders in Karangasem. Instead he was placed in a 35 square meter room at the immigration’s detention facility in Jimbaran and allowed to be accompanied by his parents and to use a Playstation.

The decision to place him in that facility was made by no less than three high-ranking Indonesian officials — the National Police chief, Law and Human Rights Minister and the Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister.

At that time 11 Indonesian children were jailed at Kerobokan prison in the same blocks as adult prisoners.

L.A.M. was arrested Oct. 4 on Padma Street, Kuta, by plainclothes narcotic detectives for having 3.6 grams of marijuana in his possession.

He confessed that he bought the illegal drug from an unknown person.

The fact that he is a minor soon turned the case into a high-profile media saga.

He was sentenced to two months imprisonment on Nov. 25 by a panel of judges presided over by Amzer Simanjuntak.

It was the lightest sentence the Denpasar district court has ever dispensed on drug-related offenses.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/12/05/drug-related-minor-convict-sent-home.html

Ni Komang Erviani, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar | Mon, 05/09/2011 8:00 AM | Bali

Officers from the elite police mobile brigade (Brimob) “paid homage” to their weapons Saturday to celebrate Tumpek Landep, the Balinese Hindu festival for weapons and metal tools.

Balinese Hindu members of the paramilitary unit began the celebration by praying at Padma Bhuana Temple located close to the unit’s headquarters in Tohpati, East Denpasar.

Dressed in Balinese Hindu attire, the officers prayed to Sanghyang Pasupati, the patron deity of
weapons.

Following the prayer, they gathered at the temple’s outer yard, where dozens of assault rifles, light machine guns, automatic pistols, revolvers, tear gas launchers, batons and shields were arranged on tables decorated with young coconut leaves. Next to the weapons were traditional Balinese Hindu offerings.

Similar offerings were also placed at the arsenal, where the bulk of the unit’s weapons are stored, and before an array of armored vehicles, water canon trucks, personnel carriers and jeeps.

The temple priest chanted while presenting the offerings before sprinkling holy water on the weapons. He then walked to the arsenal and the car pool to repeat the
process.

“Only the Brimob unit in Bali observes this ritual. The tradition is unique to Bali and we want to show our respect to local religious traditions,” Bali Police Brimob commander Sr. Comr. Heni Sulistiya said.

Bali Hindus celebrate Tumpek Landep every 210 days and, placing offerings before weapons, cars, metal tools and even computers.

“Landep means sharp and the celebration is our way of asking the gods for the gift of a sharp mind in our ongoing struggle against the darkness,” Padma Bhuana Temple priest Jero Mangku Made
Sukarma said.

He added that the ritual also symbolized the unit’s commitment to use the weapons to protect and to preserve peace and justice.

“The weapons should be used in the right way for the right reasons,” he added.

Bali Parisadha Hindu Council chairman I Gusti Ngurah Sudiana said Tumpek Landep was originally held to honor traditional weapons, such as kris (wavy dagger) and tombak (spear).

Now, Balinese Hindus use the day to honor everything made of metal and any instruments they use in their work, including laptop computers and cars.

“There is nothing wrong with that since all those instruments are, to a certain extent, also weapons in our battle against poverty and any other challenges posed by modern times,” Sudiana said.

Ni Komang Erviani ,  The Jakarta Post |  Mon, 11/09/2009 2:48 PM  |  Bali

Bali Police deployed a huge contingent of officers, including ones from the paramilitary Mobile Brigade, to secure tourist sites across the island in a special operation targeting street criminals.

Code-named Operasi Wisata Agung 2009, the operation was launched Saturday and will run until Nov. 16.

“The main objective of the operation is to prevent crimes that target domestic and international visitors. Hopefully, this operation will be able to make the tourists feel safer during their stay on the island,” Bali Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Gde Sugianyar said Saturday.

As many as 898 officers have been deployed to major tourist destinations, including Kuta, Sanur, Nusa Dua, Lovina, Tanah Lot, Rambut Siwi, Ubud, Kintamani, Candi Dasa, Goa Lawah and Taman Ayun.

“They will beef up security at the local hotels, restaurants, cafes, night spots and money changers.”

The officers would also pay special attention to security threats, such as street musicians, beggars, hawkers and thugs.

The operation was launched following a series of high-profile crimes that targeted foreign visitors. In late September, a Japanese woman was mugged and murdered in Kuta while in late October a Swedish girl was raped in South Kuta.

“We want to prevent similar incidents from taking place in the future,” Sugianyar said.

He also said that an undisclosed number of Mobile Brigade officers had been deployed to strategic spots across the island.

“We deployed the officers to provide the public with a calming sense of security amidst the recent increase of crime rate.”

In October, the Bali Police had carried out a special operation targeting burglars and thieves.

“It has succeeded in bringing down the number of burglary cases,” he said.

On December the police will hold another special operation to secure the island during its busiest tourist period; the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.