Cipinang Penitentiary Institution ( id, Lembaga Pemasyarakatan Cipinang) is a top-security prison in Jakarta,

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. It is exactly located in Cipinang Muara,

Jatinegara Jatinegara (originally known as Meester Cornelis or Meester for short) is one of the districts (''Kecamatan'') of East Jakarta, Indonesia. The name also refers to the larger, historic area of the colonial town of Meester Cornelis. Established ...

East Jakarta ) in Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII), Jatinegara railway station and Museum of Transportation at Taman Mini Indonesia Indah. , image_seal = Lambang Kota Jakarta Timur.png , motto = , image_map ...

History

The prison was built by the Dutch colonial administration, during the

Indonesian National Revival The Indonesian National Awakening ( id, Kebangkitan Nasional Indonesia) is a term for the period in the first half of the 20th century, during which people from many parts of the archipelago of Indonesia first began to develop a national conscio ...

. It held Indonesian nationalist leaders such as

Mohammed Hatta Mohammad Hatta (; 12 August 1902 – 14 March 1980) was an Indonesian statesman and nationalist who served as the country's first vice president. Known as "The Proclamator", he and a number of Indonesians, including the first president of Indon ...

. Following Indonesian independence, novelist Pramoedya A. Toer was arrested in 1961 and held without trial for nearly a year in Cipinang for criticizing the

Sukarno administration Guided Democracy () was the political system in place in Indonesia from 1959 until the New Order began in 1966. It was the brainchild of President Sukarno, and was an attempt to bring about political stability. Sukarno believed that the parli ...

's anti-Chinese policies. Human rights groups such as Amnesty International and

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human ...

alleged that the

Suharto administration The New Order ( id, Orde Baru, abbreviated ''Orba'') is the term coined by the second Indonesian President Suharto to characterise his administration as he came to power in 1966 until his resignation in 1998. Suharto used this term to contra ...

used Cipinang and other prisons to silence opponents from the Sukarno administration and

Irian Jaya New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torres ...

. In their annual report for 2005, AI also spoke of routine

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts ...

and ill-treatment. The organization said of Cipinang and other prisons:

According to a survey conducted by a local non-governmental organization, over 81 per cent of prisoners arrested between January 2003 and April 2005 in Salemba detention centre, Cipinang prison and Pondok Bambu prison, all in Jakarta, were tortured or ill-treated. About 64 per cent were tortured or ill-treated during interrogation, 43 per cent during arrest and 25 per cent during detention.

During the Indonesian occupation of

East Timor East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-we ...

, East Timorese independence activists, such as

Xanana Gusmão José Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmão (; born 20 June 1946) is an East Timorese politician. A former rebel, he was the third President of the independent East Timor, serving from 2002 to 2007. He then became its fourth prime minister, serving from ...

(later

President of East Timor The president of the Democratic Republic of Timor Leste ( pt, Presidente da República Democrática de Timor-Leste; tet, Prezidente Republika Demokratika Timor-Leste) is the head of state of the Democratic Republic of Timor Leste. The executi ...

), were housed in the jail. Others imprisoned at Cipinang for political activity include political dissidents Asep Suryaman, Sri Bintang Pamungkas, and labor leader

Muchtar Pakpahan Muchtar Pakpahan (21 December 1953 – 21 March 2021) was an Indonesian labor leader who founded the first independent trade union in Indonesia. Pakpahan was active as a lawyer at Muchtar Pakpahan & Associates Law Firm and taught at the Law Fac ...

. After

Suharto Suharto (; ; 8 June 1921 – 27 January 2008) was an Indonesian army officer and politician, who served as the second and the longest serving president of Indonesia. Widely regarded as a military dictator by international observers, Suharto le ...

's resignation in 1998, new President Jusuf Habibie released Pamungkas, Pakpahan, and Gusmão.

Abu Bakar Bashir Abu Bakar Ba'asyir ( ; ar, أبو بكر باعشير, ʾAbū Bakr Bāʿašīr; ; ; born 17 August 1938) also known as Abu Bakar Bashir, Abdus Somad, and Ustad Abu ("Teacher Abu") is an Indonesian Muslim cleric and leader of Jamaah Ansharut Ta ...

, the spiritual leader of Islamist terrorist group,

Jemaah Islamiyah Jemaah Islamiyah ( ar, الجماعة الإسلامية, ''al-Jamāʿah al-Islāmiyyah'', meaning "Islamic Congregation", frequently abbreviated JI) is a Southeast Asian militant extremist Islamist terrorist group based in Indonesia, which i ...

, was imprisoned in Cipinang. He was released after serving 26 months for conspiracy relating to the 2002 Bali bombing.

Today

The jail holds 4,000 prisoners in a facility designed to hold 1,500. Well-connected prisoners are often able to obtain superior accommodation. The former governor of Jakarta, Ahok, was imprisoned here, but was released in January 2019 after receiving a two-month remission.

References

External links

*
"The view from Cipinang prison" ''Green Left Weekly''
{{Authority control Buildings and structures in Jakarta Prisons in Indonesia Politics of Indonesia

History

Today

See also

References

External links