Andi Arief in police custody

Issue 

By James Balowski

On April 24, the Indonesian daily Kompas confirmed that Andi Arief, chairperson of Student Solidarity for Indonesian Democracy, which is affiliated to the outlawed People's Democratic Party, is now in police custody.

Arief was abducted at gun-point in Lampung, South Sumatra, on March 28. The authorities have consistently denied any involvement in the case and have yet to explain his absence. The arrest warrant is dated April 18, three weeks after his kidnapping.

Kompas reported that Munir, from the Commission for Lost Persons and Victims of Acts of Violence, and Arief's older brother, who were able to visit him on April 23, said Arief looked healthy and bore no signs of violence.

Arief told them that after being abducted he was blindfolded, taken to a place he could not identify and interrogated day and night. In many of the documented cases of activists being abducted and tortured by the military, the victims have been transferred to the police before release, allowing time for physical evidence of torture to heal.

Max Lane, coordinator of Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor in Australia, told Green Left Weekly: "The regime was forced to return Arief to police custody because of the public pressure created by those who have campaigned for his and other activists' release." Lane emphasised that, "although this is a victory for the democracy movement and international solidarity, we must continue to campaign until all other political prisoners in Indonesia are also released".

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