Antara News, Monday, September 6, 2010 02:14 WIB
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Malaysian police once again arrested five Indonesian fishermen believed to be in Indonesian waters on Friday and held them in a police post in Kampung Jawi, Malaysia, a fishery advocacy coalition said.
"We got the information from our networks, families of those arrested and other fishermen who escaped the arrest," Secretary General of the People`s Coalition for Fishery Justice (KIARA), Riza Damanik, said here on Sunday.
He said that the five fishermen who were arrested came from Sei Bilah and Sei Bilah Timur villages, Sei Lepan sub district, Langket district, North Sumatra.
They are Naser (34), Junaidi (30), Iswadi (32), Jolauni (31) and Ali Akbar (22).
Damanik said he believed the five were arrested within the Indonesian water territory based on explanations made by fishermen who escaped the Malaysian police arrest.
In the meantime, the Indonesian embassy in Malaysia has not yet notified the families of the arrest.
"I hope the embassy would soon take actions to provide legal assistance for the Indonesian fishermen. I don`t know why the Indonesian embassy is always late. After all, Malaysia should have as soon as possible notified the embassy each time it had arrested Indonesians," Damanik said.
With regard to the six traditional fishermen from Sei Bilah, Langkat district, North Sumatra, who were previously arrested by Malaysian police on July 9, 2010, he said that the six fishermen were now held at Malaysia`s Sena Prison.
He said that five of the six fishermen were jailed up to October 29, 2010. They are Ismail (27), Amat (24), Hamid (50), Syahrial(42) and Mahmud (42). The other one, Sementara Zulham (40), will be jailed until December 9, 2010.
Damanik said that they were jailed because they lacked legal assistance, even though they were convinced they were fishing within Indonesia`s territorial waters.
