Hopefully you’ve already seen the huge expose that the Associated Press published last month showing that modern-day slavery was taking place in Benjina, a remote island of Indonesia, where hundreds of fishermen, mostly from Myanmar, were being kept in cages and forced to work on boats through threats of violence.
The Indonesian government acted quickly to rescue the slaves and shutdown the company allegedly behind the horrific human rights abuses Pusaka Benjina Resources (PBR).
Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti and her ministry was behind the shutdown of PBR and has been investigating how the company was able to operate in Indonesian waters in such a blatantly illegal manner (The company itself has argued that it “abused” its workers but that it did not “practice slavery.”)
On Saturday, an advisor from Susi’s ministry, Yoseph Sairlela, was found dead at a hotel in Menteng, Central Jakarta. Reports say he looked like he had been beaten to death, although the results of the official police autopsy will not be known for two weeks.
Yoseph has been described as a key witness in the government’s case against PBR. His official role was Coordinator of Post Monitoring of Marine Resources and Fisheries in Benjina, which means he might have been aware of PBR’s practices (the initial AP report suggested PBR was bribing Indonesian officials to be allowed to continue their slavery operations).
Police have now voiced their own suspicions that Yoseph’s death was linked to the PBR investigation.
“We suspect the death has links to the recent case in Benjina,” National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Anton Charliyan said on Tuesday, as quoted by the Jakarta Post.
Police said they were planning to take his statement on the matter next week. “He knew all the ins and outs of companies operating under the Pusaka Benjina group,” said Police Task Force Chairman Achmad Santosa as quoted by Tempo.
Police are currently investigating Yoseph’s death by interviewing witnesses at the hotel and examining security camera footage.
