Baskoni the real suspect, police finally say

JAKARTA (JP): City police finally announced yesterday that Baskoni Wahab, a 63-year-old high school teacher who has been in police custody for four days, is the only suspect in the murder of a senior police officer in East Jakarta last week.

"Now we have come to the final conclusion that he is the only suspect based on the confession made by him as well as information from witnesses and all evidence available," head of the General Crime Section of the City Police Headquarters Lt. Col. Gories Mere told reporters.

Since the arrest of Baskoni, who is also a manager of an educational foundation, on Tuesday morning, none of the city police officers had been willing to make a formal statement on the results of the interrogation of the suspect, giving rise to speculations that he was not the real murderer.

Mere, who was directly involved in the investigation, said that Baskoni is the single suspect in the fatal stabbing of the newly-appointed head of the Pademangan police precinct, Maj. Noenang Kohar, 38, who was wearing civilian clothes when the incident took place last Friday.

The killing, he said, was a spontaneous act and not premeditated as many had presumed. He said it was began after a minor accident between a bajaj (a small three-wheeled transport vehicle) Baskoni rode in and the Daihatsu Taft jeep driven by Noenang.

Mere added, however, that there were still some discrepancies between the confession made by Baskoni and the statement of the bajaj driver, who is the key witness in the case.

He also confirmed that police detectives had earlier apprehended the wrong person, identified as Iwan, whom they thought was the bajaj driver.

He said that the real driver, identified as Warkam, was found on Wednesday in Indramayu, West Java.

Mere quoted Warkam as saying that Baskoni swore at Noenang, calling him "a dog and pig" when the police officer's jeep brushed against the bajaj and that Baskoni told Warkam to continue driving when Noenang asked them to stop.

After blocking the path of the bajaj, Noenang quickly got out of his car and confronted Baskoni, Mere quoted the key witness as telling him.

"The bajaj driver confessed that he didn't know or hear what was happening between the two until he saw Noenang fall down bleeding."

Meanwhile, Baskoni's lawyers from Jakarta's Legal Aid Institute earlier quoted their client as saying during police questioning that the crash occurred after the Taft jeep tried to pass the bajaj on the left side -- a violation of the traffic law.

When the accident occurred, Baskoni shouted obscene words at Noenang which might have incurred the wrath of the officer who then chased after the small vehicle and stopped it, the lawyers said.

Baskoni said Noenang rushed from his car and slapped his face. He then got out of the bajaj and demanded to know why Noenang had slapped him. An infuriated Noenang allegedly told Baskoni that he was offended by Baskoni's obscenities.

Apparently Noenang moved to slap Baskoni again, but Baskoni quickly took out a knife and stabbed the unsuspecting officer in the left side of his chest, said the lawyers, adding that Baskoni was not aware that the victim was a police officer. (bsr)