The three arrested boat crew members were Herman (35), Arfin (33) and Denmus (20), all of them hailing from East Nusa Tenggara.
Ciamis, West Java (ANTARA News) - Police have taken into custody three men who operated the boat with dozens of immigrants from Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan on board that sank in Pangandaran waters in Ciamis, West Java, recently.

"From Pangadaran, they were directly taken to the West Java Police Headquarters on Thursday for further questioning, " the chief of the Pangandaran police precinct, Adjunct Commissioner Sugiarto said by phone when contacted to confirm about the information here on Friday.

The three arrested boat crew members were Herman (35), Arfin (33) and Denmus (20), all of them hailing from East Nusa Tenggara. .

He said the three were arrested by the Pangandaran police immediately after the incident.

During preliminary questioning, they said that they were on the boat because someone had ordered them to man it at Majingklak, a coastal village in Ciamis district, West Java, and take it out on a voyage.

Upon their arrival in Majingklak, Sugiarto said, they were met by tens of foreigners who asked to be taken to Australia by the boat.

He said the three men had been arrested but the police had not yet officially daclared them suspects, adding the Pangandaran police was leaving their case entirely to the West Java Provincial Police Headquarters.

He said the Ciamis police`s duty was only securing them while the question of whether or not they would be named susptects was up to the West Java Police headquarters.

A total of 47 immigrants had survided the shipwreck and they had all been taken to Ciamis where they could given better accommodations than in Pangandaran.

The bodies of eight of the immigrants who died in the shipwreck were still being kept at the Kota Banjar general hospital while search and rescue teams were continuing to scour the sea off the Pangandaran ooast to find other victims of the incident.

The boat left Majingklak in the West Java district of Ciamis at 3 am on November 1, 2011 for a journey to Australia when it developed a leak. Possibly also because it was overloaded, the 2m X 7m wooden vessel could not stay afloat and sank.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2011