Medan, North Sumatra (Antara) - Police are investigating fires at Tanjung Gusta prison in Medan, North Sumatra, on Thursday. Medan police chief Senior Commissioner Nico Afinta said here on Saturday that a forensic team has been sent to the scene to conduct an investigation. "The investigation on the scene is led by the chief of Medan's forensic laboratory," he said. He said the investigation was aimed at knowing locations of the fires that led to the death of five people and also their cause. Nico said no deadline had been set for the conclusion of the investigation. He also declined to tell any piece of evidence taken from the scene saying that "it is part of the investigation." Nico however admitted that there were indications showing it was an arson adding fires happened in many locations. "If there are more than one location it means it is a deliberate action," he said. Due to the fires last Thursday five people had died including two prison officers while 212 inmates had fled although on Saturday 97 of them had been captured. The head of the North Sumatra office of the ministry of justice and human rights, Budi Sulaksana, meanwhile said all documents relating to terrorist, narcotics and corruption prisoners had been burned down during the fires. No single piece of documents could be saved, he said adding "all important documents belonging to the Medan penitentiary such as decrees, financial documents, proposals for sentence reduction of prisoners and others have all been burned." However he said there were possibilities that their copies could still be found in the data base at the North Sumatra office of the ministry of justice and human rights. "But if none of them are found it would be difficult to know conditions of prisoners in the penitentiary," he said. He said the police have begun searching data that would be needed for prisoners' administrative service. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono meanwhile has also asked for a thorough investigation of the incident. (*)

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Editor : Tunggul Susilo


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