Law enforcers have managed to control a riot that broke in a prison in the Banda Aceh Prison on Thursday prior to the transfer of three inmates to another prison.
According to prison official Edi Hardoyo, the three prisoners were scheduled to move to the Medan Prison due to bad behavior. However, the decision was met with fierce opposition by other inmates who went on to violently protest against the transfer.
“It turned out that their friends inside – well maybe they have been getting contributions from them – they did not accept the three prisoners being transferred,” he said, as quoted by CNNIndonesia.
The riot led to an office room in the prison vicinity being engulfed in flames. There were no casualties in the incident and none of the prisoners escaped at the time of the riot, which was cooled after the arrival of police and military personnel.
The Banda Aceh prison has a capacity to house 400 prisoners but now has more than 540. Riots and jailbreaks are common in Indonesia where overcrowding has become a problem in prisons.
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