An escaped narcotics suspect, who was recently recaptured, will be detained in Bali’s Kerobokan Prison. This is despite requests from his lawyer that I Wayan Murdana, alias Lengkong, 40, be held elsewhere, because of alleged threats on his life from an inmate in Kerobokan.
Prosecutors are standing firm on this one and at the same time dodging responsibility for Lengkong’s fate.
Head Denpasar public prosecutor, Erna Normawati Widodo Putri says Lengkong will be sent to Kerobokan after sentencing and if prison authorities decide his status in insecure there, then he could be transferred to another prison in Bali like Tabanan.
“After the verdict from our panel of judges, Lengkong will still be brought to Kerobokan Prison to undergo detention,” Putri said on Tuesday, as quoted by Tribun Bali.
“As far as a transfer to Tabanan goes, that’s under the authority of the prison. What’s clear now is that we must send him to Kerobokan. But if the prison wants to send him to Tabanan later, that’s up to them,” she added.
Lengkong, who is on trial for dealing meth, said that there was a threat on his life and even his family by an inmate inside Kerobokan after he helped investigators understand the drug network, his lawyer said on Monday.
“Lengkong alone helped investigators. So he helped with the dismantling of some of the networks that exist inside Kerobokan. This is why he objected about being taken to Kerobokan, because his safety is threatened,” attorney Benny Hariyono said of his client.
Lengkong previously escaped from BNN custody on May 16, 2017 with three other narcotics case suspects. He was captured just two days later at a homestay in North Lombok, while the remaining three have also already been apprehended.
About Lengkong’s escape, Hariyono says his client was only trying to go to Lombok to escape the threat on his life and wouldn’t have gone anywhere after that.
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