Girlfriend blamed for marine's escape

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A marine who was sentenced to death for the contract killing of a businessman managed to escape -- for the second time -- earlier this month with the help of his girlfriend, a naval officer said on Tuesday.

The commander of the Navy's Military Police, Commodore Sunarko A.G., said he had set up three groups of pursuers to find Suud Rusli, the marine, but did not give any deadline for an arrest.

"Suud is a former member of a special forces group. He is well trained, and it will not be easy to get him back. But from our preliminary investigations, we have concluded that his girlfriend, Ida, helped him escape from his cell," Sunarko said on the sidelines of a ceremony celebrating the Marines 60th anniversary.

Suud managed to escape from his cell in the military prison in Cibinong, West Java, using a hacksaw.

"We have questioned Ida's family -- who received a letter from her telling them that she is with Suud right now. I guess, with the girl by his side, he won't be able to get too far," Sunarko said.

He said Ida was an employee of a supermarket in southern Jakarta, and had provided Suud with the hacksaw he used to escape. However, it was not clear how she was able to get the saw into the prison.

This was the second time this year that Suud managed to escape from the jail. In May, he, along with his Navy companion, Syam Ahmad Sanusi, also escaped from a Navy detention center using a very similar method: cutting through the iron bars of the cell with a hacksaw.

Both Suud and Syam were sentenced to death for murdering businessman Boedyharto Angsono, the president director of PT Arena Sarana Bakti, in July 2003.

Boediharto's bodyguard, Second Sgt. Edi Siyep, who was an Army Special Forces (Kopassus) soldier, was also shot dead in the hit.

Suud and Syam were also dishonorably discharged from the Navy.

Unlike Syam, who remains at large, Suud was captured by a Navy team in Malang, East Java.

On Monday, Sunarko issued an order to capture Suud "dead or alive". He promised to segregate Suud in either the Cimahi military prison in West Java or the Surabaya military prison in East Java if the escapee was recaptured alive.

Following Suud's jailbreak, the military has dismissed the warden of the military prison, Lt. Col. Imam Subarkah, while four other soldiers, who were guarding the cell, were questioned over the incident.

However, Navy Chief of Staff Adm. Slamet Soebiyanto said the recapture of Suud and Syam should be the police's responsibility as "they are already civilians".

"Actually, the police are responsible for the recapturing of these former soldiers, and we (the Navy) are just helping the police," said Slamet, who presided over Tuesday's event.

Soenarko also said his team had discovered certain places in Greater Jakarta, including Bogor and Tangerang, where it was believed that Syam had been hiding.