RIM Indonesia chief named suspect in BlackBerry chaos
AFP
6 December 2011
JAKARTA — Indonesian police named
Research In Motion's country director a suspect for negligence Monday after a
BlackBerry promotion turned chaotic and left dozens injured and others knocked
unconscious.
Andrew Cobham, president director
for Research in Motion (RIM) in Indonesia, and British security consultant
Terry Burkey were named as two of four suspects in the incident at a Jakarta
mall and could face five years' imprisonment.
"They are named suspects of
negligence causing other people to suffer injuries, as stated in the criminal
code," South Jakarta police chief of detectives Budi Irawan said.
Police will recommend negligence
charges to prosecutors for the suspects' official indictment in court.
"At this stage they are
banned from leaving the country, as per the legal process in Indonesia. They
have not been detained but have to report to police regularly," Irawan
said.
The mall's security head and the
event organiser were also named suspects. More than 40 people were injured and
20 were knocked unconscious or fainted on November 25, police said, when they
were caught in a crush at the promotional event for RIM's new BlackBerry Bold
9790. RIM had a week earlier announced it would sell 1,000 of the new
smartphones at 2.3 million rupiah ($260), half the normal retail price.
But 5,000 people turned up to the
event at Pacific Place mall in central Jakarta in a scene that resembled a rock
concert, waiting for hours in the heat, some since the night before.
The organisers tried to hand out
bracelets to the first 1,000 people to arrive in the morning, but by midday,
frustrated BlackBerry fans pushed down a barricade and ran towards the store,
crushing dozens of people in their path.
Around 300 police and security
officers deployed for the event shut down the event promotion shortly after the
crush. Indonesia is RIM's biggest market outside North America, with shipments
of BlackBerry smartphones to surpass nine million units by the year end. RIM
declined to comment Monday on the police action.
"RIM is actively cooperating
with the authorities who are investigating this incident. We are also
undertaking our own investigation to prevent any reoccurrence of this sort of
situation," RIM said in a statement Friday.
"After the event, staff from
RIM, together with others involved in the event, visited Hospital Jakarta to
extend our support and sympathy to those injured."
RIM has had to jump several
hurdles to do business in Indonesia, being forced to block pornography on its
smartphones after a campaign spearheaded by the country's conservative
communications and information minister.
Still under negotiation is the
government's demand that RIM set up a regional network aggregator data centre
in Indonesia and customer-service centres. The government also demanded the
technology to intercept BlackBerry's highly encrypted BBM messenger service.
RIM has again irked the
communications and information ministry, which plans to meet with the company
by mid-December to follow up on its demands and to explain how the incident
occurred.
"A company should not
promote its products without considering safety. We already knew how big this
could be, considering Indonesia is one of BlackBerry's largest markets,"
ministry spokesman Gatot Dewa Broto told AFP.
"Before the event, we
expressed our concerns that this might happen through the media."
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