Police personnel lined the streets in Bali’s Kerobokan area last night as preparations were made to transfer 10 prisoners to Nusakambangan prison island in Central Java.
Police had originally said on Tuesday that 12 prisoners would be transferred, but two didn’t board the boat to Cilacap, for reasons police would not yet disclose.
The transfer was ultimately done early this morning around 5:40am, with hundreds of personnel on guard duty both inside and outside of the notorious Bali prison.
Of the ten inmates transferred, five are foreigners and five are Indonesian nationals, according to Bali Police Sabhara Director. Comr. IGB Suteja.
While Bali Police Chief Insp. Gen Petrus Reinhard Golose said earlier this week that the prisoners being transferred are linked to either ormas, mass organizations, or the illegal drug trade, Suteja declined to comment any further on the criminal background of the prisoners.
“The transfer is standard and is related to capacity, related to the general conditions of prisons in Indonesia, especially in Bali,” Suteja said, as quoted by Tribun Bali.
“As for mass organizations or no, it’s not in my authority to comment,” he added.
Speaking earlier this week, Golose said mass organization-linked prisoners were being rounded up and transferred to Nusakambangan as a “deterrent.”
Sometimes referred to as “Execution Island,” or the “Alcatraz of Indonesia,” Nusakambangan island is home to a handful of different prisons, infamous for their max security status, housing serious criminals from terrorists to drug traffickers, and murderers. The island is one of the main sites where capital punishment is carried out in Indonesia and was where Bali Nine Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were executed in April 2015.
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