DENPASAR: It was Monday morning when prison guards at the notoriously overcrowded Kerobokan penitentiary in Bali made a routine check of the number of inmates shortly after taking over for the night shift.

As they entered Bedugul block, a block that mostly houses foreigners, they were stunned to find four inmates missing.

The missing inmates were Australian Shaun Edward Davidson, Bulgarian Dimitir Nikolon Ilev, Indian Sayed Mohammed Said and Malaysian Tee Kok Ming.

“The guards searched all areas of the prison, including the walls, but they found nothing,” Kerobokan Penitentiary warden Tonny Nainggolan said.

As the search continued, one guard discovered a hole in the ground next to the prison wall. The hole was covered by a concrete tile. “At first, they thought it was a septic tank because it was located next to the [prison] clinic’s toilet,” Tonny said. “It turns out, below the hole was a tunnel connecting to the outside of the prison.”

The hol e was very small, only around 60 centimetres in diameter.

“I never knew there was a tunnel there,” Tonny said. Apparently, it was an old water tunnel no one realised was there.

Water in the tunnel could be seen from the opening. “After it was checked to see if it connected to the outside, we were sure they had fled through the tunnel,” he said.

Officials allege the prisoners planned their escape for some time.

Davidson was serving one-year sentence for an immigration violation, Ilev was serving seven years for an ATM scam and money laundering, Said was serving 14 years for smuggling 1.5 grams of crystal methamphetamine to the island and Tee was serving seven years and six months for drug-related charges. The four were residents of Bedugul block, but occupied separate cells.

Tonny said they had planned to dig a hole without being captured by CCTV cameras or noticed by other people.

“For the last two months, they had also grown moustaches and beards. It seems as though changing their appearance was part of their plan [to escape], but we never realised it,” he added.

The hole through which they escaped is situated directly under a guard tower. However, there was no guard stationed at the particular tower at the time of escape.

Tonny admitted the prison was facing staff shortages. Therefore, only three of the five towers in the prison can be guarded at any one time. “We don’t have enough guards to be stationed in the two towers,” he said.

The correctional division head of Bali’s law and human rights ministry office, Surung Pasaribu, said that, before going through the tunnel, the prisoners escaped from their block through the roof. “They brought an iron bar, which they later used to dig the hole,” he said.

“From the roof, they jumped down and went to the area behind the clinic, which is next to their block,” Surung said.

He claimed there were no guards or prison officers involved in aiding their escape.

The Bali police deputy director of special crimes, Senior Commander Ruddi Setiawan, said police were investigating the escape. “We have distributed the photos of all the escaped inmates.”

The police have also asked immigration authorities to ban the four from leaving Indonesia. “We have coordinated with all police stations across Bali and Indonesia,” he said.

“Other people may have helped them and they could also become subjects of investigation,” Ruddi said.

There have been at least four jailbreaks in Indonesia this year.

A massive jailbreak in May saw 448 prisoners escape from Sialang Bungkuk prison in Pekanbaru, Riau. As of Monday, more than 100 of those escapees were still at large.

Earlier this month, flash floods damaged a wall at the Jambi penitentiary in Jambi, allowing at least 51 inmates to escape.

The government has frequently blamed the lack of officials and overcrowding for the rampant problems surrounding penitentiaries across Indonesia.

The Jakarta Post

Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2017