Indonesian inmates smuggle contraband via fake books

“Don’t judge a book by its cover.”

The old saying rings true for the guards of Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) detention centers who recently found several inmates had smuggled contraband entertainment into their cells disguised as textbooks and documents.

Eight KPK detainees locked up at the detention center at KPK headquarters in Central Jakarta, and 14 at the Guntur Military Police detention center in South Jakarta, had employed religious books, court documents and a book-like safe box to have money, cell phones and Wi-Fi modems smuggled into their cells.

They had asked their family members to bring books, mostly religious texts, as those items were often left unchecked by detention wardens.

“We found 3.5 million rupiah [US$ 290] slipped into a Dzikir [Islamic praises of God] book at the Guntur facility. None of them have claimed ownership of the book,” KPK spokesman Priharsa Nugraha said Sunday.

During a recent inspection at the two detention facilities, KPK officers found money, ranging from 100,000 rupiah to millions, inside detainees’ cells, including 18 million rupiah inside the cell of Banten businessman Tubagus Chaeri Wardana. Former Bank Indonesia (BI) deputy governor Budi Mulya was found with 3.4 million rupiah and suspended Riau governor Annas Maamun with 2.1 million rupiah.

“We also found another 25 million rupiah inside a bucket and 1 million rupiah hidden under a mattress. Prior to this recent inspection, we also found that detainees slipped money into investigation documents to trick detention centre officers,” said Johan Budi, the KPK prevention unit deputy.

In addition, the anti-graft body also found that Annas, who had been arrested for allegedly accepting cash illegally from a businessman, possessed a small strongbox wrapped inside the cover of a book called A Journey to the Memory of Old Greece. The box could hold money and a cell phone.

“We have been criticized by the detainees’ lawyers that our five-book-only policy has violated the detainees’ right to intellectual freedom, but in fact they make use of it as a chance to smuggle prohibited items through this kind of thing that resembles a book,” Johan said while opening the cover of the book-like box found inside Annas’ cell.

The KPK denied suggestions that the smuggled money was used by detainees to bribe detention center officials to ease the way for their visiting family members to bring in prohibited items like cell phones, computers, power banks and Wi-Fi modems.

One of the detainee’s lawyers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that his client kept money inside the detention center to order food from the outside, should he get bored eating the food provided by the KPK.

“My client also has a number of illnesses and that is why he needs to keep money to buy medicines,” the lawyer said, adding that the detainees smuggled items into their cells only “to enjoy the time they are serving like normal human beings.”

The inability of KPK detention center officials to prevent the smuggling had allowed detainees to secretly use cell phones and to surf the Internet inside their cells.

In mid-October, the KPK found cell phones and Wi-Fi modems hidden inside the detention cells of former Constitutional Court chief justice Akil Mochtar and former Democratic Party chairman Anas Urbaningrum.