This is my story and civil and human rights abuse case against former Balinese police chief Made Mangku Pastika also involving senior police officer Kombes Boy Salamudin (Criminal Investigation Squad Director).

Made Pastika photogenically exudes friendly piety and the Indonesian institutional PR machine makes him out to be a Balinese hero, but Pastika's history is not that wonderful. The American FBI once wanted to question Pastika about the murder of 2 foreign aid worker teachers in West Papua and Made's claim to international fame and aclaim is for his co-operation with foreign police officers who tracked down the 2002 Kuta bombers because Bali's own police force clearly could not; for many Pastika got praised for admitting his own colleagues could not do the job so they let real (foreign) police do the job for them.

But back to my problems and case against the Balinese police and Pastika.

An irony of the original unlawful (unsigned) false and malicious Bali police complaint made against me by John Millard AKA Jack Daniels (CEO of PT. Bali Discovery Tours) is that, because he did not sign the complaint, his name does not appear officially as complainant in the investigation file (for my case to date see: Police Chief Budi Setyawan). In a ridiculous abuse of one of the world’s most corrupt police forces, Jack Daniels used this fact to selectively publicly deny he made a complaint against me in the first place using statements such as “(Daniels) adamantly denied these accusations, insisting no proof exists to substantiate Mr. Austin’s allegations”, which is not the same as saying he did not make the complaint, just that the proof is not there according to him. Actually a whole lost of proof exists it was Daniels who made such a nasty callous complaint, such as written statements given to me by other people who had been told the same thing and / or witnessed the same investigations file (e,g, from my lawyer at the time).

Here now are the details of Made Pastika's and Kombes Boy Salamudin's unlawful acts against me.

Jack Daniels / Bali Discovery Tours on the 7th June 2003 published on their web site that they were going to file a police complaint against me for criminal libel on the basis I had published it was them that filed the original complaint but as there was no proof they had done this, the fact I had them named them was libelous as it could not be proven! As a footnote libel can be both a civil and criminal matter in Indonesia, though my publishing the name of the complainant is hardly a criminal matter; but criminal libel is Indonesia’s most abused criminal code in a country which suffers enormously from the criminalization of civil cases (source: Indonesian Chamber of Commerce). However it was not just the fact Daniels said he was going to make a complaint and the degree of certainty he showed that it would be processed into in yet another investigation and even court case against me (e.g. by describing a future complaint as “charges”), it was the manner by which he said the police would act, i.e. illegally.

You see Daniels boasted;
“The charges against Mr. Austin are being handled by Mr. Suryatin Lijaya, S.H., a recognized leader in civil and criminal law practicing before the Denpasar Courts. While the specific details of the various criminal charges will remain sealed and with the police until Mr. Austin personally presents himself to the police for further investigation, among the complaints Mr. Austin is being asked to answer concerns various untrue and defamatory statements published on Internet sites under Mr. Austin's ownership and control against Bali Discovery Tours and its President Director, J.M. Daniels.”

Daniels basically said the police would take a sealed envelope from him and wait until they could get their hands on me. That isn’t just a statement the police would act against me without legal cause; how could they be acting legally if they did not know specifically what was in the envelope? But it also foretold of the highly unlawful act of entrapment. What should also be noted is that Daniels claimed he was making “various” criminal complaints against me, not just for alleged libel. Finally of course if his predictions of unlawful police actions became true, it would show conclusively that he had already formed an agreement with police officers through his lawyer to act against me using collusion and / or corruption.

It should also be noted that Indonesian law requires the complainant themselves to actually file and sign the complaint in a police station, not their lawyer. I know this as I asked my Jakarta based lawyers if they could file multiple police complaints against Daniels and Bali Discovery Tours if I were to get them a legalized (duly notarized and confirmed by an Indonesian Embassy) Power of Attorney; they said "No", I could only file police complaints in person. Therefore Daniels published claim that his lawyer would be doing this would mean the complaint and any subsequent investigation were made unlawfully. In fact, if Daniels' lawyer filed a police complaint on his behalf and the police accepted it, this could only be for one reason, corruption; corrupt Indonesian police officers "protect" themselves by only taking bribes from trusted sources (lawyers who they frequently collude with).

After reading Daniels’ published boasts and after I had been subjected to an earlier unlawful police investigation against me at his hands during which I was threatened with the death penalty for “spying”, I was obviously in no rush to return to Bali to experience this and maybe worse still, especially as Daniels' words indicated they had agreed I would be arrested and prosecuted without reference to any evidence. Ever since I returned home from Bali in December 2002 after that earlier investigation, I had been trying to get the Balinese police to stop their unlawful acts against me through lawyers in Bali. You see Indonesian law requires the police, if challenged specifically citing proper legal arguments, to either give good reason for holding and / or continuing an investigation or to close that investigation. Well both I and my Balinese lawyer had formally written to the police chief Made Mangku Pastika who became Bali's police chief in late April 2003, specifically detailing why the original investigation should be closed (unlawfully taken, unlawfully processed, unlawfully sustained, unlawfully enacted, unlawful detention without charge, unlawful seizure of my passport, acting outside Indonesian police jurisdiction – the last cause is confirmed in the police investigation file memo). Indonesian law also states that a proper response has to be given by the police as to what their decision is and citing any legal cause (if they wish to continue the investigation) if they are challenged 3 times in writing, which they were but Made Pastika did not act or respond as he is legally bound to.

Actually, what the police did were to verbally report to my lawyers that the case was inactive (that I would not be questioned again over it) but that it could not be closed as it was, what they called a “pre-investigation” to determine if a true investigation should be conducted and therefore was not covered by law regarding closure! Of course I was not happy with that and wondered why the police could not or would put what they said into writing! Anyway, as my lawyers (Lily and Anggia Lubis) were in constant contact with the police over this issue, I asked them to also get involved regarding this new complaint Daniels so confidently claimed he was making; they said the police had reported to them that no complaint had been made by Daniels. They were so adamant the police could not confirm such things in writing but there was nothing to worry about, that there was no further investigation into me I made plans to return to Bali.

However, thank God, I then discovered through a third party that Anggia Lubis was working duplicity with Daniels in his favour over these matters. When I challenged her over her loyalties, Anggia Lubis told me that she and her sister Lily had a copy of a police receipt from Daniels confirming they had accepted his latest complaint against me; this after they had told me it was safe to go to Bali! As Lily and Anggia were supposedly working for and being paid by me (it is illegal to work for two opposed clients at the same time of course), I asked them to fax me this copy receipt as I was legally and morally entitled to expect them to do of course; they both refused. It seems clear they did not want me to get this as it would prove the police were acting unlawfully yet again and I cancelled my airline ticket; I think this may well have saved my life. Understand I did not know at that time whether to believe Lily and Anggia Lubis had a copy of a police complaint receipt from Daniels or not or whether this was just a ruse to prevent me from coming to Bali. You see, it is a common tactic by Indonesian police and lawyers to both lie and to hurt people by trying to stop them from coming to see their family for fear of police intervention; yes, Lily and Anggia Lubis are really that nasty.

So I appointed a new lawyer in Bali who repeated the process. This lawyer reported again back to me that the police Foreigner Control Department, who legally have to be told of any pending or actual investigation against a foreign national, had said that there were no such investigations against me and that I could return to Bali without fear of being questioned by the police. Given I had heard from the nasty Lubis sisters that they had a copy of a police complaint receipt letter from Daniels, the fact the police had acted unlawfully in several areas against me before, the fact that Daniels had stated he was making “various criminal” complaints against me, the fact that it had been mentioned I was really being investigated for spying and threatened with the death penalty in the first police investigation and the fact Daniels had boasted the police would try to entrap me made me concerned as to why the police refused still to confirm things in writing. My lawyer told me the police simply said that they never reply in writing to anyone, but that clearly was not true if Daniels had a letter receipt from them. It also was clearly not true after my new lawyer, bless her, got the police to impeach themselves for a few dollars by giving her a copy of the investigation file memo letter regarding the original investigation which gave me a lot of evidence against both former police chief Budi Setyawan and Made Mangku Pastika. But if they were willing to give her that letter, why not one confirming the old investigation was dead and there were no new ones to worry about?

However, months went by and I began to think maybe this was just a ruse by Daniels, acted out by his pet Anggia Lubis to scare me into staying away from Bali and that no other complaintsor rather investigations existed. In the end I started to believe the police that it was OK to return to Bali and began to think about returning again. Luckily for me though Daniels made a series of massive mistakes which not only allowed me to confirm my worst fears, that I could well end up dead at the police’s hands if I went back to Bali, but also that police chief Made Pastika was clearly personally involved in the unlawful acts against me. You see at about the same time Jack Daniels decided to file a domain dispute with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) over the domain I then used to publish details of his nasty acts, balidiscovery.org. Basically he claimed he had a Trademark which protected him against anyone else using a variation of his own web site’s domain balidiscovery.com under International Trademark / domain law. He actually lost his first WIPO complaint, however it was not the complaint but what he put in it that probably saved my life. You see, the WIPO requires complainants to specify any legal action being taken elsewhere in relation to the domain being disputed, so Daniels detailed the fact he had made a criminal libel complaint in Bali over it. Jack Daniels’ mistake however, no doubt being a proponent of pointless bureaucratic irrelevance himself, was that Daniels’s specified the police complaint receipt number when he did not need to. This allowed my Balinese lawyer to not just identify the complaint file but also the police officer who took it.

Daniels sealed envelope complaint was made to none other than the second most senior police officer in Bali, chief of detectives, criminal investigation squad director Kombes Boy Salamudin. Kombes Boy Salamudin was not just a very senior police officer, Salamudin worked very closely with Made Mangku Pastika when Pastika was in charge of hunting the October 2002 Bali bombers; actually, I believe the International police sent to Indonesia did the work but Pastika took the praise. You may recall, Made Pastika was also keynote speaker at the December 2002 “Bali Security Workshop” chaired by then police chief Budi Setyawan who during that conference personally took Daniels first unlawful complaint against me.

So my lawyer was then able to try and confront this senior police officer over Daniels’ claim to have filed a very special kind of police complaint with him. Kombes Boy Salamudin refused to talk to my lawyer but instead the next day on February 1st 2004 processed the sealed envelope complaint into a full criminal investigation and had one of his second in command (Assistant Director Siregar) issue a summons against me. Siregar made the mistake of confirming the police’s unlawful acts and evil intent against me by noting that the complaint was actually filed by Daniels’ lawyer on the 3rd July 2003, some 7 months before. This alone was bad and unlawful enough as Indonesian law requires investigations to be commenced immediately if the police believe there is probably cause, and of course proved that Daniels had received assurances through his lawyer from the police that they would get me no matter what and use entrapment, because Daniels boasted they would on the 7th June 2003. What it also confirmed is that the investigation, as foretold by Daniels, was as a result of an unlawfully made complaint which could only be explained by the fact Daniels had given money to his lawyers to pay the police to act unlawfully against me.

What made me particularly glad I did not go back to Bali to face their unlawful actions was the English translation of one of the criminal codes my London human rights lawyers said was contained in the summons;

1) “The death sentence is applied by an executioner in the gallows by means of tying a noose tied the gallows frame to the convict's neck, and then dropping the planks on which the convict stands.”

2) "Anyone who intentionally publicizes documents, news or comments that are known to have to be kept secret in the national interest, or intentionally discloses or hands them over to a foreign country." "Anyone who intentionally, fully or partially discloses, notifies or hands over to any unauthorized person of documents, maps, plans, drawings or materials of a secret nature in his/her possession that are related to the defense or safety of Indonesia in an outside attack and whose content, shape [form] or composition of material [objects] is known to him/her."

To be fair to the Balinese police, which does not come easy to me, another lawyer has said there are duplicate criminal codes (criminal codes with the same numbers) and that maybe the police were not specifying criminal codes for spying or saying the death penalty may apply to my alleged crimes if I was ever convicted. Personally though, I would have liked the police to clarify this in writing themselves, but of course they have refused to even though I and both English Human Rights and Indonesian lawyers have written to Made Pastika challenging them as prescribed in law. So I must presume Made Pastika and his close colleague Kombes Boy Salamudin did conspire together with Daniels and that the police did intend to try me for spying and execute me, not least when you read what they did in the next few paragraphs. Even if they did not intend to try me as a spy and shoot me, they violated my human rights yet again of course by not stating this in writing to me when challenged.

I did not attend the summons of course. Even if I wanted to I could not, as they did not give me enough time; they expected me to come from abroad and at my own expense as well. But this is also a favorite trick I have found out of the corrupt Indonesian police. They like to issue summons they know people will or can not attend, sometimes even by serving them unlawfully without that person ever knowing they have been summonsed until it is too late. You see, if you fail to attend a summons, the Indonesian police can automatically arrest and detain you for up to 90 days without charge. I have been told by a third party that Daniels gave US$3000 to his lawyer Lijaya to bribe the police into acting unlawfully in this matter against me. I also think it appropriate to mention the fact the police stated in writing to my lawyers that Jack Daniels had appointed some “private detectives to monitor (me) and to report to the police”. I found out "private detectives" meant the Indonesia mafia or "Laksar"; that's right, there is documented evidence the police, Daniels and the mafia were working together.

I am certain Made Pastika was involved in or at least fully knew about their unlawful acts / my civil and human rights abuse by his subordinates because the original investigation file memo I obtained a copy of through my lawyer states that the Chief of the Bali Regional Police (Made Pastika himself) requested details of it on 25 July 2003. This shows that Daniels’s complaint was at least discussed in detail at the very top (Bali’s top 3 police chiefs) and probably the unlawful plan agreed / confirmed. Either way, Made Pastika was legally involved.

Next came news the Balinese police had added my name to Interpol’s automated watch facility as a suspect insurgent / spy, which confirms the police sought to investigate or rather punish me as a spy, even though all I ever did was;
a) State a well known fact that many Indonesian police officers are corrupt.
b) Named Daniels as the complainant.
c) Report by email from outside Indonesia to others about the pathetic security I witnessed as I went through Bali airport just after the October 2002 bombing. As this information was sent to well known businesspeople in Bali so they could use the same at security meeting in Bali, I was hardly passing state security secrets to JI (the terrorist group), was I?

It also showed the Balinese police are liars and fraudsters as the only official (declared) investigations into me were for alleged libel, which does not entitle them to have me watched by Interpol, so they lied to Interpol. As mentioned before the only practical use for having my International movements reported to them by Interpol was not so they could be waiting for me if I ever came back to Indonesia (as they could have their immigration stop me), but was to pass that information to Daniels who has demonstrated he wishes to have me physically harmed, likely murdered. The Balinese police thereby became part of an attempt on my life. Police chiefs Made Pastika and Kombes Boy Salamudin were obviously personally involved / guilty as I understand any and all Interpol requests for that time would have had to be signed off on by both of them.

Bali police chief Made Pastika and cronies also showed they wanted to unlawfully curb people saying anything bad about them on the Internet (even when what was said was true and / or outside Indonesian jurisdiction) by setting up Indonesia’s first so called “Cyber Crime” police division without instruction from Jakarta and without any existing or new Indonesian criminal codes whatsoever to justify such actions. Made Pastika’s formation of this division showed his intentions were nothing to do with fighting crime but also showed just how inept Pastika and his officers actually are by token of the fact their head cyber crime detective, officer Tri Kuncoro knew so little about the Internet that he believed you had to visit a business’ premises in order to see their web site. However Tri Kuncoro has proven himself typically adept at trying to extort money from people and abusing both their civil and human rights (see: Harry Bleckert). It seems clear Made Pastika formed Bali’s Cyber Crime police division because of me and his appointing one of their most adept thugs for officers to run it shows what Pastika’s intentions and ethics are.

My details have since been removed from Interpol’s database following a formal complaint by my specialist London based human rights lawyers, Simons Muirhead & Burton, who have also filed a formal complaint against the Balinese police under Interpol’s anti-corruption mandate. Interpol’s investigation against the police officers involved and their acts is currently “ongoing” and we understand still awaiting formal clarification and response from the Indonesian authorities. After a year of waiting already, I have to question just how effective and sincere Interpol are at protecting the human rights of people fraudulently placed on their watch facility by corrupt even murderous police officers like Made Pastika. Made Pastika may be heralded as a savior to Bali by some for allowing foreign detectives to do his work for him, but he is nothing more than a fraud and thug as far as I can see.

After my Balinese lawyer moved out of law into politics, I decided it would be better to find a Jakarta based lawyer as these tend to be better trained, plus I felt it was time to take matters higher. These lawyers also wrote to Made Pastika three times as required by law specifying why the investigations into me were unlawful and had to be dropped. Under Indonesian law he was obliged to at least reply after the third letter either agreeing to close the cases or setting out legal cause for continuing them; Pastika did not reply and so therefore committed an offense. The only letter ever received by my lawyers from the police in Bali was one from Cyber Crime chief detective, Tri Kunocoro’s boss, senior police officer Suharya on the 14th October, 2005. This did not agree to cease or give reason to continue the two existing investigations against me but rather advised of a new complaint and case of my allegedly criminally libeling Daniels. Basically Daniels went into the police yet again with more “evidence” against me (this time it was about web sites that name and shame him which he claimed without any evidence except conjecture I was involved in). This was yet another completely unlawful act by the police as even if Daniels’ new “evidence” had any legitimacy to it, which it did not, it should have formed part of the second investigation into me as this was also for my alleged libel against him. Clearly the police were starting a new investigation to try and cover the legal challenges made by my lawyer that they should cease the original investigations amongst other reasons under the 2 year rule. Again the police made another mistake in this letter which showed they were working unlawfully through collusion with Daniels; they stupidly noted the fact under the cc recipient list that a copy went to Daniels (where he had no legal place receiving one).

I demand compensation and an apology from the Indonesian Government for these breaches of my civil and human rights, that Made Pastika and Kombes Boy Salamudin are disciplined to the maximum extent as allowed by Indonesian and International law, that John M. Daniels face criminal charges for his role in violating my human rights, and for PT Bali Discovery Tours to have their trading licenses revoked for filing false and unlawful police complaints through collusion / corruption. I also demand that Daniels' lawyer Suryatin Lijaya face criminal charges for his clear and recorded role in unlawful police incitement to act unlawfully through collusion and corruption. I also demand Lily and Anggia Lubis be investigated for their unlawful roles in acting with Daniels against their client's (my) interests.