Elize's inconsistency confuses police

JAKARTA (JP): Chief Insp. Gen. Mulyono Sulaiman of the city police said on Monday that the suspect Elize Maria Tuwahatu has repeatedly confused Jakarta Police detectives with her attempts to deny several things she had earlier told officers during questioning.

Arrested for possessing three bombs at the Taman Mini Indonesia Indah recreation park in East Jakarta on Jan. 19, Elize stole the limelight when she told police that it was the fugitive Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra who gave her the bombs.

"She keeps on changing her story. Maybe she's doing it out of fear. The problem is, we have long completed her case dossiers and she has signed them," Mulyono told reporters on Monday.

"We are doing our best to hand her and the dossiers over to the state prosecutors as soon as possible. Of course, what she has told us is a one-sided story. We have to capture Tommy first to hear his side of the story, too. The traveler's checks which Tommy allegedly gave Elize for the bombing projects are of no use to us either."

City police detectives earlier found out that they had been duped by a person whom they had been trying to apprehend for the past week.

Jakarta Police chief of detectives Sr. Comr. Harry Montolalu earlier said that police had lost a significant lead on the person who had bought the three traveler's checks reportedly given by Tommy to Elize.

"When one buys a traveler's check, one is obliged to show one's identification (ID) card to the bank. The address on the ID card turned out to be a fake... there's no such address. We've lost track of this person, for now," Harry told reporters. (ylt)