Local businessman attacks Chilean soccer player at disco

Local businessman attacks Chilean soccer player at disco

JAKARTA (JP): Chilean soccer player Nelson Hernan Leon Sanchez
was admitted to hospital early on Tuesday morning after allegedly
being attacked by a man at Stadium discotheque on Jl. Hayam
Wuruk, Central Jakarta.

Sanchez, 33, suffered severe head wounds after businessman
Munawar Akbar Ali allegedly pistol-whipped him on the disco's
ground floor. The injured player was taken to Cipto Mangunkusumo
General Hospital.

Angelo Espinoza, a friend of Nelson's, said he, Ariel
Gutierrez and Sanchez, all Chilean soccer players, arrived at the
disco at 4 a.m on Tuesday.

"We were out to relax after our participation in the Bank
Mandiri national soccer league, which kicked off last year," said
24-year-old Espinoza, a midfield player with the Jakarta-based
Persijatim club.

He said earlier in the evening the three of them had visited
Jalan-Jalan discotheque in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta.

"Nelson and Ariel intended to spend their night here before
they went back to Medan," he told reporters at the city police
headquarters.

Sanchez is a midfield player and Gutierrez, 23, is a striker
for the Medan-based PSMS club.

PSMS and Persijatim failed to make it into the semifinals of
the national soccer league, which are scheduled to take place on
July 20.

The competition's quarterfinals took place in Jakarta
recently.

Espinoza said the three men became separated on entering the
disco.

"Ariel and I bought tickets on the ground floor of the
building, while Nelson walked ahead of us into the disco, located
on the fourth floor of the building," he said, adding that
Sanchez was seen entering the lift behind a man in his thirties,
later identified as Munawar Akbar Ali.

Sanchez said he and the man then ascended using the lift.

"The man was trying to shut the door, but I opened it as I
also intended to use the lift," he said.

Ali, a resident of a luxury Pondok Indah housing complex in
South Jakarta, became angry.

"He made a fool of me because he played around with the door
several times," Ali, who claimed to be a businessman, said at the
city police headquarters.

Ali accused the soccer player of kicked him several times in
the jaw and leg on their journey to the fourth floor.

Sanchez rejected the allegations, saying he did nothing of the
sort.

"I'm a foreigner and I don't want to make problems here," he
said.

After spending several minutes quarreling, both men agreed to
go to the ground floor to settle the matter with the disco's
security staff.

Ali, who apparently lost patience during the discussion with
the security staff, pulled out a handgun and hit Nelson's in the
face with it.

"He was apparently drunk," said Espinoza, who later reported
the incident to the local police.

The police seized the gun, the make of which they did not
mention, and brought all the men to the city police headquarters.

After rejecting the offer from Ali to settle the matter
peacefully, Espinoza and Sanchez filed a report with the city
police headquarters. (asa)