Four held on assault charges

JAKARTA (JP): The Ciracas police detectives in East Jakarta have arrested all of the four suspects believed to have severely battered three women early last week.

City Police spokesman Lt. Col. Bambang Permantoro told reporters on Tuesday that the four suspects, all of whom are university students, were arrested on Monday afternoon in Jambi, Sumatra, after they tried to elude the police.

They were identified only as MA, 26, Har, 22, Mus, 24, and Bag, 23, said the spokesman after speaking with head of the Ciracas police.

"As soon as the Ciracas police got information about their whereabouts, they rushed to Jambi and arrested all of the suspects, who were hiding at a house belonging to a relative of one of them," Bambang said.

The spokesman denied reports made earlier by local media that the women were brutally raped and beaten and then dumped by the suspects.

Confessions

Based on confessions made by the victims and suspects, police preliminary findings indicate that the four students caused bodily harm to Erna, 19, Marini, 17, and Dina, 16, after having intercourse with them at the Villa Texas motel at the Puncak resort near Bogor, West Java, on Aug. 1.

"There's no rape here because they engaged in sex at the motel with the consent of all parties," he said.

The four suspects panicked when the women, who they met for the first time at the Blok M shopping center in South Jakarta earlier that day, asked them to "take responsibility for what they have done", Bambang said.

By this it was clear they expected the men to ask them to marry them.

When the suspects refused to agree to the women's demand, one of the women threatened to report them to the police.

Worrying that it would lead to a serious problem, the men decided to ditch the women in the pre-dawn hours on Aug. 2 after beating them, Bambang said.

The three females, who are registered as students of an economics school in the city, were found by two residents laying near a public cemetery at Pondokrangon in East Jakarta on Aug. 2. with their bodies full of wounds.

"We're still collecting more information and evidence to find out who harmed the women," Bambang said.

The four suspects are currently under intensive investigation at the Ciracas police.

The police were also informed that a receptionist at the motel has said that one of the women is familiar to him.

Among the evidence currently in the possession of the police are the white Toyota Starlet sedan used by the suspects and stones believed to have been used to inflict pain.

"We're still hunting for some other evidence," Bambang said.

He said that the four suspects left the city immediately in their sedan after allegedly committing the crime. (bsr)