Senior Balinese Police Officer

Last week we described how corrupt police working unlawfully through collusion at the bequest of a competitor or someone with a grudge against another go about their initial extortion motivated "cross checks” (see our Corrupt Bali Police Report). After these preliminary investigations, if the victim (accused) is not prepared to pay the police officer to make the problem go away, the police then decide if they can convince the prosecution service to bring the case to court. Of course, as the most recent report from Transparency International showed, the Indonesian courts are in the top 2 most corrupt judicial systems in the world. Therefore this likely means corrupt police officers with a history of colluding with their pet prosecutors and judges simply have to decide whether a case can be made to sound tangible, although not necessarily that it holds water! Just enough to make it superficially sound OK. Anyway, a corrupt police officer bent on extortion may not not need to rely on a corrupt judge, just a dodgy prosecutor!

As long as a corrupt Balinese police officer feels he can put together a plausible sounding case to the prosecutors, this is likely all he needs to conduct a full criminal investigation against a person. Having decided upon this, as has been reported about cases in Bali such as with Candi Internet, the police can get a person put in jail for 30 or 60 days. “What” you say? How can the police have you jailed for an investigation that has not even officially reached the prosecutor’s desk or court yet? It is very easy for them; the police officer simply has a summons issued against a person which is unlawfully served, so the victim does not even know about it. Or the police can serve it in such a way so as to leave the victim no option but to fail to report to the police station at the designated date and time. Then the police officer can get an arrest warrant from their colluding contacts at the prosecutor’s office and court room for ignoring a police summons. Depending on the crime for which someone is being "investigated", this can mean jail for up to 30 or 60 days.

“But how can they serve a police summons against someone without that person knowing it?” Simple, the police can ignore the law which states they have to serve someone personally or their designated lawyer or their village chief. For example, leave an envelope with a person's accountant or cleaner or gardener. Then, claiming the summons was served properly to the court that they are likely to be in league with anyway, they get an arrest warrant against their victim for ignoring that summons. Another way is to serve a summons which someone has no hope of attending, such as a summons to appear on a public holiday, when the police station investigation department is closed anyway. Or to serve the victim's lawyer while that person is abroad. Or to serve them late at night for the next day when they know that person's lawyer is on another island.

Once they have someone arrested and in jail, their victim is more likely to pay the police, prosecutor and judges some extortion money to make the problem go away. Except, of course, the amount needed to do this has now risen quite dramatically. But this person is honest and has principles, they will have someone post bail and fight the bad guys in court! The trouble is, there are credible reported cases in Bali of where bail conditions have been met, but the prisoner has not been released. Even though the bail bond conditions have been met, it seems the judges still wanted money (without a receipt) to let the poor victim out. So they either end up paying extortion money this way or that way, or they stay in jail.

What makes it worse is that the 30 or 60 day jail term for ignoring a police summons can and often is extended. All the police have to do is go to court and say they are still investigating the case and that they have had problems calling certain witnesses! So then someone stays in jail for yet longer and without charge, except for allegedly ignoring a police summons! “But surely, your lawyer would be able to fight this in court by proving the summons was not lawful?” Think again, whose word is it and against whose, and whom decides? By this method corrupt Balinese police can and do put people they have an agenda and no more against in jail for inordinate amounts of time. Fancy an Indonesian jail cell shared with umpteen other convicts anyone?

Don't believe it is possible? Then read: Candi Internet Bali

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