The Indonesian police have named the country’s director of Research in Motion as a suspect for being negligent this Monday, as a promotion event for the BlackBerry smartphones turned into chaos which resulted in dozens of people being injured and many others rendered unconscious.
The President Director for RIM Indonesia, Andrew Cobham, along with Terry Burkey, who is a British security consultant, were declared as two out of the total four suspects for the incident which took place at a mall in Jakarta and they could face imprisonment for as long as five years. Budi Irawan, the Chief of the investigation division in the South Jakarta police, said that both of them have been named as suspects for negligence which caused extensive injuries to other people, as is stated in the country’s criminal code.
The police are expected to recommend charges of negligence to the prosecutors for the official indictment of the suspects in the court. Irawan said that they are currently banned from travelling out of the country, according to the legal process followed in Indonesia. They haven’t been detained as of yet; however, they have to report to the police at regular intervals.
Over 40 people suffered injuries and more than 20 fell unconscious on the 25th of November at the RIM event, said the police. The event was organized for the promotion of the RIM’s newest offering, the BlackBerry Bold 9790. It had been announced earlier this week by RIM that it will sell more than 1000 of these new BlackBerry smartphones at a price of $260, which is half of its normal retail price.
However the event saw more than 5000 people turn up for it at a mall located in central Jakarta, who had to wait in sweltering heat and some of whom had been there since the night before the event. The organizers attempted in vain to hand away bracelets to the first 1000 people who arrived at the spot in the morning; however by the afternoon, the aggravated BlackBerry fans stormed through the barricades towards the store, leading to a stampede.
The police and security officials who were deployed to manage the event shut it down shortly after the incident. Indonesia marks the biggest market for RIM out of North America, as the shipments of BlackBerry smartphones will exceed 9 million units before the end of the year.
