Vitorio Mantalean, Jakarta – The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) has criticised the results of an investigation by the government sponsored Joint Independent Fact Finding Team (TGIPF) into the Kanjuruhan football stadium tragedy because it failed to further investigate allegations of obstruction of justice by the police.
Yet, in the report itself, the TGIPF revealed the deletion of CCTV recordings by the police covering a duration of around three hours and 21 minutes.
"This is apparent from the testimonies by several parties that were obtained by the TGIPF which in essence stated that the CCTV [recordings] in the area of the stadium were not allowed to be downloaded and alleged efforts by the police to replace recordings with new ones", said Kontras Legal Division Head Andi Muhammad Rezaldi in a press release on Tuesday October 18.
The TGIPF's findings also revealed that the deleted CCTV recordings had made it difficult for the team to carry out its investigation.
Kontras regretted this saying that it is not enough for the TGIPF to use these findings as an urgent point which could be investigated further. "Yet the alleged obstruction of justice is part of the criminal acts which must be fully investigated", said Rezaldi.
The deleted CCTV recordings covered the main lobby and the stadium parking area. The CCTV unit would have recorded the movement of barracuda vehicles which transported the Surabaya Persebaya football team out of the Kanjuruhan stadium.
But on Saturday October 1 at 10.21 pm precisely, the deletion of the CCTV recording began.
"The initial movements of the series of barracuda vehicles which were to evacuate the Persebaya team, would have been recorded by the CCTV [cameras] located at the main lobby and parking area", wrote the TGIPF in their report.
"But the CCTV footage starting from 22.21.30 recorded for a duration of 1 hour 21 minutes, and then the recording is lost (deleted) for 3 hours, 21 minutes, 54 seconds, then the recording reappears for 15 minutes", continued the TGIPF report.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Rekaman CCTV di Kanjuruhan Hilang, Kontras Kritik TGIPF Tak Tegas Dorong Usut "Obstruction of Justice"".]
