Friend blamed for parking attendant killing

JAKARTA (JP): A parking attendant was allegedly killed by his friend at a minivan terminal on Jl. Stasiun, in Cakung, East Jakarta, yesterday.

The victim, identified as Samimam, 37, died as a result of two severe neck wounds and other injuries to his back and left arm that were possibly caused by a sharp object.

"Police told me that Samimam was killed by Robi, one of his friends," the victim's wife, Iyah, 20, said.

Officers from the Cakung Police subprecinct came to Iyah's house in Kali Baru Barat, Kranji, in West Bekasi, at 2 a.m. and told her that her husband had been murdered.

"Police took me to the station so they could tell me more about my husband and Robi," the housewife said. "But I know nothing about the problem between them."

Several weeks ago Samimam had mentioned something about Robi, who worked as an ojek (motorcycle taxi) driver, she said.

"My husband eventually slapped him in front of their friends at my house," she said, adding that the dispute between them seemed to be unresolved.

Iyah said police took her and a friend to the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital yesterday after they had pointed out Robi's house in Rawa Bebek, East Jakarta.

"Robi must have run away to his hometown in Banten."

She said she would wait for the police's finding about who killed her husband.

"I just want to take my husband's body back to Bangkalan in Madura where his parents are," she said.

Iyah said she knew nothing about Jakarta so she had to wait for hours before two police officers came to pick her up.

"If I leave the morgue, I don't know how to reach my house, then who will accompany my husband's body," she said.

The couple, who have no children, migrated to Jakarta in 1991, one year after they were married.

Samimam once worked for a florist in Cilandak, South Jakarta. But, when the florists along Jl. Fatmawati were evicted, he became a parking attendant six months ago.

"He wasn't perfect, however, because he drank and gambled, but he never allowed me to work as he said he could still earn enough money for me," she said. (04)