Police officers tortured Ayub Jr Hutagaol in the district of Wania, Mimika regency during a police raid to investigate a case of illegal alcohol sale. The torture occurred inside Mr Hutagaol’s shop and was caught on CC TV. The recordings quickly went viral after local residents shared the video on social media. A team of lawyers representing Ayub Huatagaol officially filed the case to the Mimika District Police. District Police Chief, Era Adhinata, announced in an interview with media outlet Jubi that he will process the perpetrators through a police internal investigation for violation of the police ethic code and a law enforcement procedure.
According to media information, members of the Mimika District Police Resort came to the village of Nawaripi in Wania on 14 May 2020 to investigate the sale of illegal alcoholic drinks. The officers entered Ayub Hutagaol’s store and questioned him about whether he was selling self-made alcoholic drinks in his store. Mr Hutagaol answered that he did not sell alcoholic drinks whereupon the police officers searched his store. As the officers found multiple plastic containers with alcoholic brew, they got angry and started to torture Ayub Hutugaol. The torture was meant as a punishment for not telling the truth about the whereabouts of the alcohol.
The video shows Mr Ayub Hutugaol sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall while both of his hands cover his face. A plainclothes officer hits him twice with a motorcycle helmet on the head and subsequently kicks Mr Hutugaol seven times on the head (see intro image). Thereupon another officer approaches the victim holding a plastic chair. He strikes Ayub Hutugaol four times with the plastic chair until the chair finally breaks into pieces (see image on the right). The video shows that the torture is witnessed by at least four other plainclothes officers, who didn’t intervene.
