18 police officers who will face an ethics investigation

Eighteen police officers are set to face ethics hearings over allegations they extorted 45 Malaysians attending the Djakarta Warehouse Project (DWP) dance music festival in Jakarta.

The national police chief for internal affairs, General Abdul Karim, told a news conference on Tuesday that 18 officers had been detained.

“The investigation of the internal affairs division has decided to bring the alleged culprits to an ethics hearing next week,” Abdul said, without revealing the identities of the officers, saying they were from various precincts and sub-precincts in Central Jakarta and the Metropolitan Police Jakarta. .

Police also seized 2.5 billion rupiah (RM685,650) in cash. The announcement of the ethics investigation comes after viral complaints about alleged extortion, with some users posting on X that certain police officers extorted money from festival-goers by forcing them to take drug tests and threatening them with criminal charges when the results the tests were negative.

The three-day festival was held from December 13 to 15 at the Jakarta International Expo (JIExpo) in Kemayoran, central Jakarta. After the extortion allegations went viral, police internal affairs received reports from two Malaysian nationals, Abdul said, without giving further details.

“We, the police, are committed to investigating any alleged wrongdoing by our own officers. We will take severe action” if they are found guilty, he said.

Abdul added that his office is in constant communication with the National Police Commission (Kompolnas) as an “external oversight” body, “so we are transparent in our investigation.”

He did not say whether criminal charges would be brought against the 18 officers if the internal investigation finds the allegations to be true.

Festival organizer Ismaya Live posted a message on Instagram last week urging people to report any information they have about the DWP incident to the police. — The Jakarta Post/ANN