Detachment-88 counter-terrorism unit. In May, two members of Detachment 88 received administrative sanctions after an internal police hearing. In August, officers of the Mobile Brigade (Brimob) shot dead a Papuan teenager in Sugapa, Intan Jaya regency, Papua Province. Otianus Sondegau and four others created a road block to ask for money and cigarettes from passing traffic. Police attempted to disperse the blockade violently and fired shots at the five teenagers at which point they threw stones at the police. Five officers were found guilty of “misusing firearms” after internal disciplinary hearings; four served 21day prison sentences and another was sentenced to a year in prison related to the shooting. In October, members of the Madiun Infantry 501 Raider Battalion attacked a journalist from NET TV who was covering a brawl between members of a military unit and a martial arts group in Madiun, East Java Province. They beat him, destroyed his camera’s memory card and threatened him if he reported the incident. Despite promises by the Armed Forces chief to investigate the attack, no one had been held to account at the end of the year. PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE At least 38 prisoners of conscience remained in detention, many for their peaceful political activism in Papua and Maluku. Prison authorities delayed access to adequate and free medical treatment to Johan Teterissa and Ruben Saiya who were suffering long-term health conditions. The two men were among at least nine prisoners of conscience from Maluku held in Java, more than 2,500km from family and friends. Steven Itlay, imprisoned in Timika, Papua, suffered ill health as a result of poor conditions and was granted only limited access to his family and lawyer.8 In May, three leaders of the Millah Abraham religious group were arrested and detained by the Indonesian National Police and were charged with “blasphemy” under 190 Article 156a of the Criminal Code and “rebellion” under Articles 107 and 110. TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT Reports of torture and other ill-treatment continued. In September, Asep Sunandar died in police custody in Cianjur, West Java Province. He had been arrested, with two others, without a warrant, by three officers of the Cianjur Resort police. He was taken to an undisclosed location and later reported dead. His family said that when they visited the hospital, they saw multiple gunshot wounds to his body and his hands still tied behind his back. No investigation into the death is known to have been carried out. Cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment Caning was used as a punishment under Shari’a law in Aceh for a range of criminal offences including selling alcohol, consensual relations, and being alone with someone of the opposite sex who was not a marriage partner or relative. At least 100 people were caned during the year. The law was applied to non-Muslims for the first time in April when a Christian woman received 28 strokes of the cane for selling alcohol.9 In October, the House of Representatives ratified Government Regulation in Lieu of Law (Perppu) No.1/2016, which amended Article 81 of Law No.23/2002 on the Protection of Children. The revised law imposed forced chemical castration as an additional punishment for those convicted of sexual violence against a child under 18. According to the revised law, chemical castration would be carried out for up to two years after the expiry of the offender’s prison term. The Indonesian Doctors’ Association stated that it would refuse to administer the procedure. DEATH PENALTY In July, one Indonesian national and three foreign nationals were executed, three of them while their appeals were pending. Ten other prisoners who had been moved to Nusa Kambangan Island, where the executions took place, were given last-minute stays of execution to allow for a review of their cases. Amnesty International Report 2016/17