Guards arrested for torture

Guards arrested for torture

JAKARTA (JP): Police detectives in the Tanah Abang area have arrested two security guards (Satpam) for their alleged role in kidnapping a suspected thief which led to the latter's death at building site of the Sahid Palace Executive Apartments.

The two men arrested, identified as Mujiono, 30, and Alfonso Igo Benbe, 22, are security guards employed by PT Jaya Konstruksi, a contracting firm of the widely-diversified Ciputra group, to guard the building site of the exclusive apartment project on Jl. K.H. Mas Mansyur in Central Jakarta.

They were arrested last night at their respective houses.

According to police sources, the two admitted to kidnapping Rudi Hermanto, 19, beating him up and holding him hostage in a small room in the basement of the partially-completed building from 4 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Sunday.

Rudi was handed over to the security guards by some of the project's construction workers, who claimed they had caught him trying to steal two electrical panel boxes.

"The accident has nothing to do with this hotel or the Sahid group as the owner of the project," said Sri Sekartadji Asmoro, public relations manager of the Sahid Jaya Hotel. "It's wholly the responsibility of the contracting firm," she said.

Knowing Rudi had died, the two security guards reportedly called an ambulance and had the victim taken to the nearby Tanah Abang police subprecinct station.

At first they told the police that Rudi had already died before being handed over to them.

But, police suspicions were aroused by the fact that the security personnel had apparently waited several hours before reporting the dead body. (bsr)