Bali Police help secure equanimity ship

Denpasar, Bali (Antara) - Bali`s regional police have helped Crime Investigation Department and US Federal Bureau of Investigation in the effort to secure Equanimity ship now held at Bali Strait waters.

"We have indeed been asked by FBI and Indonesia Police Headquarters to send personnel to help secure the ship and process seizure license at the court," Bali`s regional police chief Insp Gen Petrus R. Golose said after leading a rollcall here on Thursday.

With regard to investigation he said it would be carried out internationally and tens of personnel from the special crime unit of the regional police would be involved in it, he said.

Golose said the Indonesian police and the FBI had successfully detected the ship in detecting the whereabout of the ship thanks to special devices of the two countries.

"Initially the ship docked in West Nusa Tenggara and then visited Bali. Right now we are just monitoring it," he said.

Later, he added, it would be dealt with by the Benoa port authorities with regard to accepting evidence and others.

"I said this was the result of cooperation between two countries and let us just wait for its development because the scene of crime is not in Indonesia but it is only the evidence that is here," he said.

In case of a crime committed abroad, he explained, police could only arrest as the realization of coooeration between law enfircement agencies.

He reiterated that `there have been a crime and money laundering being committed according to a court ruling abroad.

The Indonesian police and FBI had confiscated and searched Equanimity on Wednesday evening following a report that a ship which is evidence of a money laundeting case in the US had entered Bali. (*)