Jealous woman detained for threatening to blow up school
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
An intensely jealous woman has been detained for allegedly threatening to blow up the school where the girlfriend of her ex- boyfriend works in the United States.
"If you don't send your fiancee back to Indonesia before Jan. 31, I will place several bombs around Falls Church City Public School, especially at George Mason High School," the Indonesian woman, identified as EK, wrote to Kathryn Hopkins through the school's e-mail late last year.
Hopkins works at George Mason High School in Virginia and is about to marry to her fiance Dewa Putu Dirga, EK's ex-boyfriend.
The bomb threat caused panic at the school, which immediately sent all of its students and teachers home, while calling the police to check the school and its surroundings.
"Police closed the school until February 1, and checked the whole area but found nothing," Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Tjiptono told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
He said that EK sent the e-mail under the name of Sri Kusumaningsih and Abdul Azis.
Earlier, EK sent letters and facsimiles to Kathryn asking her to stay away from Dewa.
Tjiptono said that the U.S. police then informed the Indonesian police about the bomb threat, and the Jakarta Police cyber crime unit immediately investigated the case.
They interrogated all of Dewa's family members, including Dewa Putu Sarba, Dewa Komang Arbawa, Desak Made Satriani, and Ngurah Adi W.B., in Singaraja, Bali, in February.
Jakarta Police also sent a team to the U.S. and questioned several witnesses there, including Falls Church principal Robert W. Snee, Hopkins, Dewa, and police officer Stephen T. Rau.
"Based on the information we got from all of the witnesses, we suspect that EK sent the e-mails as she has a motive. We arrested her on March 7. We are now preparing the case file while EK is still under detention," Tjiptono said.
He said that during police interrogation, EK revealed that she was very jealous and hurt because she loved Dewa very much, and did not want Dewa to leave her to marry another girl.
EK also admitted to police that she had told Dewa that if he pursued his plan to marry Hopkins then she would hurt Dewa's family.
Tjiptono said the U.S. and Indonesian police took the bomb threats seriously as they were afraid they were related to terrorist groups, including Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) and two Malaysian fugitive bombing masterminds Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Moh. Top.
Azahari and Noordin, said to be members of JI, the al-Qaeda's Southeast Asian regional terrorist network, are believed to have masterminded the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people and the JW Marriott Hotel attack, which claimed 12 lives and the Sept. 9 Australian Embassy bombing that killed 11 people.