Last Sunday, the
Police's Special Unit Densus-88, has successfully dismantled
terrorist plot in
Medan, North Sumatera.
As in past operations, this time
Densus-88 instantly killed three men who were suspected of planning terror activities in the province, among others by robbing a bank in
Medan on broad day light and killed one
Police officer.
Considering that Indonesia adopted the concept of R
ule of Law i.e. Supremacy of Law, Equality before the Law, Presumption of Innocence, and Respect of Human Rights, I wonder whether those men deserve to be killed instantly on the spot.
Please don't get me wrong, I am totally against any act of terror that has caused fear and disorder in society. However, I felt that anyone suspected as terrorists has the right to defend him/her self in the
Court of Law.
It would totally up to the
Court Judges to decide whether or not he/she is guilty, and what kind of punishment suitable. If the whole legal proceedings confirmed that the alleged terrorist is guilty and should be sentence to death, execution may be carried out.
Beside that, if the suspected terrorist were captured alive, the Police may have more chance to question and get more information about terrorist network.
Please find below an article that I have quoted from
The Jakarta Globe.
Terrorists, Bank Robbers or Both? Confusion Within Indonesian Police After Deadly Raids
Farouk Arnaz | September 20, 2010
Jakarta. Confusion continues to surround the deaths of three people killed by members of Indonesia’s elite anti terror forces on Sunday night.
Agence France-Presse reported that the United States-backed Detachment 88 counter-terrorism unit, which shot dead three people, critically wounded two others and arrested another two during two separate raids in North Sumatra, quoted National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Iskandar Hasan as saying the arrests were linked to bloody heist at CIMB bank in Medan last month.
But he could not confirm the suspects were involved in terrorist activities. “It’s true that at around 6:30 p.m. we arrested those suspected of robbing CIMB Medan,” Hasan said. “We’re not able to say whether this is related to terrorism.”
Motorcycles and weapons including at least one semi-automatic assault rifle were seized during the operations in Belawan and Tanjung Balai cities of North Sumatra province, he added.
The Associated Press, meanwhile, said officials disagreed on what crimes the group allegedly committed.
Brig. Gen. Ketut Untung Yoga, deputy spokesman for the National Police, said the men were suspected of involvement in the bank robbery, while North Sumatra Police Chief Maj. Gen. Oegroseno was quoted as saying that the bodies had yet to be identified.
“We are not yet sure if they are linked to the bank robbery or to other terrorist activities,” he was quoted by Kompas as saying, adding several automatic weapons were seized in the raids.
A police source to the Jakarta Globe, however, said that one of the properties raided on Sunday belonged to a member of the hard-line group Jamaah Ansharut Tauhid, indicating the operation was targeting suspected terrorists.
“The owner of the house, Ahmad Gazali, is a member of JAT,” the source said on Monday.
JAT is led by hard-line cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who is currently being detained at the National Police headquarters on charges related to the militant paramilitary training camp found in neighboring Aceh.
Densus 88 has been criticized in recent months for its high kill-to-capture ratio — with one suspect killed for every four arrested.
The deaths raise human rights concerns and risk fueling Islamist propaganda and tarnishing what has been a highly praised anti-terrorism campaign that has seen hundreds of suspects arrested and convicted, AP reports.
The killings also mean the suspects cannot be questioned and intelligence on their networks is lost.
