TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Jakarta Legal Aid Institute or LBH planned to directly pick up any report of complaints of legal injustice related to police operations in hunting the street robbers or begal. LBH opened a post for the complaints and have yet to receive any reports since its opening on Wednesday.
The plan was revealed by Public Lawyer for Fair Trial of LBH Jakarta, Shaleh Al Ghifari. He stated that LBH Jakarta will actively investigate the existence or absence of legal injustice during the police operation in hunting down begal and street criminals.
“We're still discussing the technic. [The investigation is] probably [commenced in] this week,” said Shaleh, Thursday, July 19.
Read: Police Shoot Jakarta-Depok Begal
LBH Jakarta in a statement submitted on Wednesday, July 18, questioned the instruction by the Jakarta Police Chief Insp. Gen. Idham Azis about shooting any suspected of street robbers and thieves who fight back. The instruction is deemed to be contrary to the National Police Chief Regulation (Perkap).
The instruction given by Idham is categorized as extra-judicial killing. Therefore, LBH Jakarta opened the complaint posts for those who feel that they are the victims of legal injustice. Based on the data released by police during more than two weeks of operation, more than 50 people were forced to be shot and 12 of them were shot dead.
Read: Police Arrest 247 Shoot 11 Robbers to Death in 2-week Operation
The LBH post is empty on Thursday, July 19. Shaleh suspected that the relatives or family of the victims have no courage to report.
Shaleh emphasized that the complaint post is an action made by LBH to avoid any victims of misconduct. “The operation of hunting the street robbers and thieves has the potential to cause many casualties if the police are not careful,” he said.
LANI DIANA WIJAYA
