The rights of criminals in Indonesia are not often high on the list of police concerns, but a viral photo, supposedly showing a group of police officers in Lampung posing for a group photo over the bodies of five robbers they had just killed has caused outrage amongst netizens and has officials promising to investigate the disturbing breach in law enforcement ethics.
Lampung Police Head Spokesperson Sulistyaningsih confirmed that officers from the internal affairs department (paminal) had come to Bandar Lampung police headquarters in South Sumatra to investigate the circumstances surrounding the photo which has spread on social media in the last few days.
“The team regrets that police officers posed for a picture like that and we’ve also studied who first spread that photo into the public domain,” said internal affairs investigator Baharudin Jafar as quoted by Kompas.
According to the police, the five robbers in the photo were shot on Saturday night at around 2 am after a shootout with police. They ranged in age from 17-20 and were said to be recidivists who had stolen motorcycles and committed other crimes at multiple points around the capital city.
Bandar Lampung Police Chief Budi Murbani Putono said the robbers had been shot for resisting arrest, forcing officers to act decisively. According to Kriminalitas, police officers confiscated weapons including two guns, bullets and sickles, as well as several motorcycles.
The photo had been widely circulated on Facebook over the last few days but police say most instances of it have already been taken down.
