Ministry forms five teams to handle Tangerang prison fire case

Tangerang, Banten (ANTARA) - The Ministry of Law and Human Rights has formed five teams to assist in handling the fire outbreak case at the Class 1 prison in Tangerang, Banten, which claimed the lives of 41 inmates.

Each team will have a duty in handling the fire case at Tangerang Class 1 Prison, Minister of Law and Human Rights, Yasonna Hamonangan Laoly, said at a press conference at the Class I Prison in Tangerang on Wednesday.

The first team will identify the prisoners who died in the fire, he informed. The team will work closely with officers from the police, he added.

The second team will handle the victims' funeral, the minister said. Currently, the bodies of the prisoners have been taken to the Tangerang District Hospital for a post-mortem, he informed adding, they will later be transferred to the Police Hospital.

The third team will focus on the recovery of the victims' family, Laoly said. The ministry has asked the director general to prepare a compensation fund to provide condolence money to the victims' families, he added.

The fourth team will coordinate the handling of the fire outbreak with all parties, starting from the police, military, Inafis (Indonesia Automatic Fingerprint Identification System), Tangerang city government, and other stakeholders, the minister said.

"The fifth team is public relations who will convey information on the progress of handling this case," Laoly informed.

The minister also advised against speculation on the cause of the prison fire as the case is currently under investigation.

The fire that hit Block C of Tangerang Prison on Wednesday at 1:45 a.m. WIB (Western Indonesia Time) was successfully extinguished by firefighters around 3:15 a.m. local time. While 41 inmates died in the fire, eight others have been hospitalized, officials said.

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