Foreigners Escape From Kerobokan

[Davita]

Thanks Atlantis....but where did they fly to in Indonesia before getting on a boat to illegally enter Timor Leste....and where could they plan to go after Dili? There are very few flights to Alor and they all transit thru' Kupang.
Isn't there a requirement to show some passport to enter/leave Timor Leste legally?
This escape is getting more interesting than any book.

 

[atlantis]

Thanks Atlantis....but where did they fly to in Indonesia before getting on a boat to illegally enter Timor Leste....and where could they plan to go after Dili? There are very few flights to Alor and they all transit thru' Kupang.

They flew to Alor. Flights to Mali airport in Alor indeed transit by Kupang but it's just a transit, meaning that showing the boarding pass for the second part of the route (KOE-ARD) is the only thing they would have to do.

Showing an ID would have been requested only once, at the departure in Denpasar.

We already know they had fake travel documents, at least one Russian passport. But to be honest traveling domestically requires you to show an ID, any ID, not necessarily a passport. It's not like forging an ID document would be difficult, wouldn't it?

In Indonesia I have been travelling showing a SIM, my consular card from the french embassy and certainly other type of ID documents I don't remember.

I've never felt that the nice girl at the counter or the less nice guy at the boarding gate were scrutinizing my picture to see if it was really me on the pic. With a smile, a few words in bahasa Indonesia, you can easily distract someone.

They check that the name matches the boarding pass, but you must be unlucky to bump on a zeleous guy who's gonna take your measurements and check the color of your eyes to guess if you are the guy on the pic. A bule looks like any other bule anyway for many Indonesian,

Also remember that they most likely flew at a time where their escape was not yet publicized everywhere.

Isn't there a requirement to show some passport to enter/leave Timor Leste legally?

They entered illegally.
Now, I have no clue how they planned to exit. But to be honest, out of the three countries I quoted previously (Timor Leste, The Philippines, Malaysia) I would definitely choose Timor Leste if I would consider a "legal" exit using a fake passport after having managed to have some entry stamps miraculously appearing on my passport. This is a new country, not well organized and corruption may be even slightly worse than in Indonesia if I believe the CPI of Transparency International. Bribing my way out? Boleh pak...

 

[Davita]

I agree...flying domestically within Indonesia would be simple enough with any ID and travelling overland in buses, trains and ferries even simpler. I've travelled the length of Java by train and no-one noticed me except some kid yelling 'Mista Bule' and selling me a map of Java....
I'm just wondering where they planned to go after Dili as they seemed to have a plan.

 

[William King]

I agree that the escape looks like a Bali gang job but was thinking more of his so called 'lost' Australian passport.
If the Indonesian gov't ensured he had a new one surely they wouldn't give it to him while he was still in jail. I ny.

Why surely?

As soon as you say surely in Indonesia...you are wrong.

 

[Davita]

Why surely?

As soon as you say surely in Indonesia...you are wrong.

I see...so, according to you, I'm wrong and they did give him his passports back while in jail...that explains a lot.

 

[William King]

No, because any time some expat says surely, they are nearly always applying their own cultural expectations to an Indonesian situation, which just does not work. Stop assuming that Indonesia works just like Britain, or USA, or Australia... et al.

There is an excellent chance that they did bribe an official to give them passports.

 

[Davita]

There is an excellent chance that they did bribe an official to give them passports.

If you have any facts to support that assumption my nephew, a Kompol in Bali police, asks if you can PM me and I will confidentially pass the info to him.
He also told me that there is no way a convict would be handed back a passport, or any other personal items, until just prior to his/her release.

 

[fastpitch17]

If you have any facts to support that assumption my nephew, a Kompol in Bali police, asks if you can PM me and I will confidentially pass the info to him.
He also told me that there is no way a convict would be handed back a passport, or any other personal items, until just prior to his/her release.

Remember, some of these escapes are in fact an exit with help through the front doors. Little tunnel could be an excuse from the prison because if the front door was announced, many would be losing their jobs. They will protect themselves first. Some things could very well be handed to them upon their exit if there were people involved with access to them. We will need to wait and see but there is a good chance that we will never know all the facts if there were some officials involved.

 

[waarmstrong]

Everyone who has factual details that might tend to bolster confidence in the integrity of the Bali police, please pass it along.

 

[Anglian]

It's all a bit odd, a flooded tunnel, escapees who seem to have fled the country as soon as they escaped, I feel someone has helped, for a fee of course, one should never be surprised at anything here, I recall seeing Tommy playing golf at Pondok Cabe golf course, he was at the time in prison, I could have reported his escape, but it probably would get me a good beating

 

[William King]

He also told me that there is no way a convict would be handed back a passport, or any other personal items, until just prior to his/her release.

Of course. And there's no way a convict would be released to fly to Bali and watch the tennis either.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/jail-br...-a-tennis-holiday-in-bali-20101116-17vwz.html

 

[Anglian]

Of course. And there's no way a convict would be released to fly to Bali and watch the tennis either.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/jail-br...-a-tennis-holiday-in-bali-20101116-17vwz.html

(Stop being so pig headed.)

That was a fun story, it showed the levels of corruption in Indonesia, a Mr Nobody at the tax office, sadly some not all Indonesians just cannot keep their hands out the till at all levels, so I'm sure, someone at the prison knows all the details of the escape, I worked closely with the DGAC and their are some really bent people there, even in hospitals, I had an emergency admittance to a hospital in Balikpapan, I took the last bed, someone offered ten million to have my bed, my wife got very angry so I got the bed, so the chances these four got out without help doesn't wash

 

[Davita]

I was focusing on the thread title re: the recent escape from Kerobokan jail and observed that I'd find it difficult to believe the escapees would have been given their passports. I asked someone who should know and he told me it isn't policy to do that.
If you wish to expand the focus to include events over 7 years ago that's OK... but I'm not interested in doing that. I'm more intrigued in how this escape was planned.
We can all speculate but if this thread is going to end up with personal insults I'd prefer to refrain and wait to hear the results of an investigation.

edit. I note the moderators have now removed the insult I found offensive. Thank you.

 

[Anglian]

I think if they did get their passports, which is highly unlikely there would be too many people involved in the escape , be interesting to hear what the captured prisoners have to say, the police have ways to make them talk

 

[William King]

We can all speculate but if this thread is going to end up with personal insults I'd prefer to refrain and wait to hear the results of an investigation.

edit. I note the moderators have now removed the insult I found offensive. Thank you.

Accurately describing your actions is not an insult.

 

[harryopal1]

With the story about Gayus Tambunan, having a prison vacation at the tennis and a Nusa Dua Luxury hotel stay for three days, and the indications of far reaching corruption throughout the justice system it leaves me curious about the status of Tommy Suharto who, according to many reports, was responsible for the murder of a judge. Are there any ongoing investigations into this man and his nefarious activities?

 

[Anglian]

I think people value their lives more than looking into Tommys nefarious activities, I was told by an Airforce general who was head of DGAC one time, Tommy owned an airline Sempati, he paid for nothing, fuel,landing fees, leased aircraft, a Japanese gentleman had leased Tommy six B737-200, he came to Jakarta to discuss with Tommy his outstanding dues, Tommy shot him in the arm, they patched the poor chap up and returned him to Japan, he didn't get his money or his aircraft, about that time Suharto was deposed, so many creditors got a bit braver, no free fuel etc, the 6 aircraft were parked at cgk for quite a while, many airline staff would go over and steal bits off the aircraft, flaps, ailerons, hydraulic pumps , you name it, if it could be carried it was stolen, quite illegal, but hey this is Indonesia,

 

[atlantis]

"A TUNNEL used by four Bali jail inmates to escape is also believed to have long been used for prisoners to come and go from the jail to conduct drug transactions."

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/ne...s/news-story/30eda48f1aa86ed69c7450104e363052

A precision concerning passports of the escapees. The Keputusan PN Denpasar number 500/Pid.Sus/2016/PN Dps which concerns Shaun Edward Davidson mentions that the passport he was using under the name Michael John Bayman has been given back to the Australian Embassy. However, the one under his name should have been given back to him and held either by the Denpasar prosecutor office or the penitentiary administration till the end of his sentence. Here is the execrpt of the Kustice decision:

1 ( satu) buah Paspor kebangsaan Australia atas nama SHAUN EDWARD DAVIDSON dengan nomor paspor N4908036 yang berlaku sejak tanggal 09 Agustus 2011 sampai dengan 9 Agustus 2021; Dikembalikan kepada Terdakwa.

A similar sentence is included in the court decision of Tee Kok King, the Malaysian convict. For the Bulgarian it is unclear because he has been extradited from Serbia where he got arrested by Interpol.

The Kerobokan Administration already said that passport of detainees are not given to them. They also said that none of the detainees where blacklisted since they had the status of detainees.

Anyway, by far the most interesting of the 4 detainees is the Bulgarian one. If I were an investigator, I would certainly scrutinize him first to try to get to the source of the financing of such escape. For the record, he has been sentenced for an ATM skimming fraud involving more than 500 fake cards and over 5000 withdrawals. And this was just for the Indonesian part. At the time of his arrest he was suspected to have also operated in several European countries. He must have kept a bit of it under his pillow at Kerobokan.

 

[Anglian]

I hardly think Atlantis the Bulgarian gentleman was working on his own, somebody gave him those 500 cards, so perhaps other gang members flew into Bali to help him escape.
My daughters boy friend works in the security department of an Indonesian bank, his time seems to be taken up with credit card fraud in Bali, the amount of fraud and the sums taken are quite staggering

 

[atlantis]

With the story about Gayus Tambunan, having a prison vacation at the tennis and a Nusa Dua Luxury hotel stay for three days, and the indications of far reaching corruption throughout the justice system it leaves me curious about the status of Tommy Suharto who, according to many reports, was responsible for the murder of a judge. Are there any ongoing investigations into this man and his nefarious activities?

Tommy Suharto has been sentenced for the murder of Supreme Court Judge Syafrudin Kartasasmita, a judge who had sentenced him to 18 month in an illegal tukar guling case of lands owned by Bulog the State owned company.
I remember the murder of the judge as it was presented in the medias years ago. It was a year or so after I settled in Indonesia, in 2001. Two motorbikes, 4 people, 4 bullets, a true mafia style execution. Despite having been sentenced to 15 years he did less than a handful of years.

Two amazing anecdotes:

• In 2011 Garuda Indonesia has been condemned to pay over 26 billions (12,5 billions kerugian immateril, 13,7 billions kerugian materil) to Tommy in reparation for "defamation" after having published in its in-flight magazine that Tommy was a "convicted murderer".

The minute of the sentence say that a mention of the conviction should not be made since Tommy had completed his sentence.
The message seems to have been received and mention of the Kartasasmita murder has been largely filtered from many of Tommy Soeharto's biographies. Who wants to pay Rp 26 billion for stating facts?​

.

• The head prosecutor who was due to serve him his arrest warrant in the graft case, and who let Tommy escape his capture, was Antasari Azhar, the future KPK head who later has been proven guilty to be the mastermind of a very similar murder than the one of the judge. I guess that he had learnt from the "best".