Fugitive marine captured, shot

Fugitive marine captured, shot

ID Nugroho, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya

After almost four weeks on the run, a team of Navy investigators
finally captured convicted murderer Suud Rusli, a former Marine
corporal who had been traveling incognito after escaping from his
cell early in May.

A spokesman for Navy Commodore Abdul M. Yusuf said on
Wednesday that Suud's pursuers had managed to incapacitate the
fugitive after a fight in a grocery store near the boarding house
where he had been staying for the last few weeks.

Abdul said the Navy team had tracked Suud to Malang, 90
kilometers south of the East Java capital of Surabaya, but needed
some time to confirm its suspicions.

"Suud was sporting a mustache, which we believed was fake, and
wearing a cap, when our team located him in the grocery store,"
Abdul said.

His pursuers shot Suud three times in the legs.

Suud, and fellow marine Second Lt. Syam Ahmad, were court-
martialed and convicted last year for killing the president of
stationery supplier PT Asaba and the owner of Holland Bakery,
Boedyharto Angsono, in July 2003. The two were sentenced to death
and dishonorably discharged from the Navy.

They escaped from the Navy prison in Jakarta on May 5. Syam
remains at large, with Navy investigators convinced he is still
in the capital.

Maj. Ananta, who led the manhunt, said Suud was a well-trained
member of the Marines, and had excellent marksmanship skills.

Ananta said the capture of Suud, 35, resulted from a tip-off
from an undisclosed source in Surabaya, who saw the fugitive in
Malang. The Navy team arrived in the town on May 20 to search for
Suud.

Last week, the team was told that a man who looked like Suud
had been renting a room on Jl. Sumber Sari since May 12.

Ananta said Suud met with a Malang resident, Ahmadi, in
Tulungagung in the southern part of East Java. It was Ahmadi who
helped Suud, who called himself Yudith, find a boarding house.

Up to the time of his capture, Suud had never given a copy of
his ID card to the boarding house's owner.

Following surveillance, Suud's pursuers were convinced that
the man they were observing was in fact Suud, who was finally
apprehended on Tuesday at around 5:30 p.m.

Suud was flown to Jakarta on Wednesday for treatment at the
Mintoharjo Naval Hospital in Central Jakarta. The Navy has asked
the Military Police for a cell for Suud pending his execution.

The Navy has blamed lax security in its prison for the escape
of the two former marines.