Ciomas police deserve award for the arrest of murder suspect

JAKARTA (JP): The director of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) said yesterday that members of the crime investigation unit (CIU) of Ciomas, Bogor, deserve an award for their success in arresting the man who murdered a Bogor Agriculture Institute (IPB) student.

Police arrested Sofyan bin Atang, 22, an unemployed man who lived in the victim's neighborhood, at his friend's house in Bukit Duri, South Jakarta, on Tuesday.

The arrest took place five days after the murder, which had shocked the IPB campus and caused a wave of fear among many of the institute female students.

"The ability of the local police, especially its CIU, to solve the case and then arrest the suspect in a relatively short period demonstrates the subprecinct's efficient working system," lawyer/criminologist Mulyana W. Kusumah said.

Mulyana added, "The work of the local police deserves credit."

Wida Rakhmawati, 22, a third-year student of aquiculture, was found stabbed at her boarding house located just a few hundred meters from the IPB campus in Dermaga, about seven kilometers west of Bogor. She was found in the room of Ari, a friend who had gone to Jakarta for the day.

Based on Sofyan's confession, Wida was the victim of a crime that had been intended for Ari.

Sofyan, according to the police, said he had initially intended to break into Ari's room to steal money, but then when he saw the bare thigh of a woman, who he thought was Ari, he decided to rape her.

"I though it was Ari, the girl I have been in love with for some time," Sofyan reportedly told his investigators.

Wida was awake when Sofyan entered the room and looked as if she was going to scream for help, so Sofyan then went to the kitchen to get a knife and then stabbed her several times.

Although there was no signs that Wida had been raped, Sofyan's confession attested to the fact that her underwear had been torn.

It was Ari who found the body of Wida lying in the room with a knife in one hand and two stab wounds to the chest and throat. The keys to Ari's room were found by police in the bathtub. (has)