A Balinese prisoner is on the loose after ditching his guard at an event in Ubud on Thursday afternoon.
After the fact, corrections authorities are saying they never should have trusted the convicted fraudster to be let out (even under supervision), in the first place.
I Putu Suciawan, 33, originally from Buleleng, Bali, had been serving time for a fraud conviction at the district jail in Gianyar. So far, he had done about a year of his three-and-a-half-year sentence.
Unlike the four foreign prisoners who elaborately tunneled out underneath Kerobokan Prison’s walls this past June, Suciawan didn’t break out, but instead ditched his guard at a crowded event in Ubud.
After displaying “good behavior” and “remorse for his crime,” Suciawan, who was apparently very active in playing music in the jail, had been permitted to go to Denpasar to buy a musical instrument, escorted by a jail guard. But the guard allegedly allowed him to go to an event in Ubud on the way, which is where Suciawan slipped into the crowd and got away.
“There was one instrument that the jail didn’t have. To complete it, Suciawan wanted to buy the instrument so he was escorted to Denpasar. But before going to Denpasar, he asked to stop at an Ubud event. Because the warden believed he would not run away, he was released there. But we were mistaken, our trust was wasted. He ran away,” said the head of Gianyar Class II B Jail, Putu Astawa.
“It is our fault. We were overconfident, we realize we were wrong to trust this person. We admit that we were wrong,” Astawa said.
The guard who had been assigned to Suciawan has not been let off the hook for such a major slip-up and is now currently under investigation by the Bali Department of Corrections.
“We are examining the jail officer,” the corrections department head, Surung Pasaribu, told Tribun Bali on Friday.
Meanwhile, Gianyar guards have been combing Ubud and the greater Gianyar area in search of Suciawan, including a visit to a former place of residence of the fugitive in Singakerta, Ubud.
“We suspect he is still around Ubud,” Astawa said.
The search, however, has also been expanded to include Badung, according to Astawa.
Reader Interactions