Malaysian girl held captive for seven years
DENPASAR, Bali (JP): Police here have detained 35-year-old man who is alleged to have kidnapped a Malaysian girl seven years ago, held her captive and then molested her.
The case has only now been revealed after the victim, identified as S.A., fled from her abductor, Syafaruddin, a native of Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara, after he molested her.
Syafaruddin has reportedly confessed to abducting S.A. while working in Malaysia in 1994. She was just six years old then.
Syafaruddin claimed that he abducted the victim because he was upset with the girl's father, the owner of a coconut plantation where Syafaruddin was working.
He was apparently annoyed over a wages disagreement.
"Angered with her father, Syafaruddin kidnapped the young girl and boarded a small ship to Indonesia. In the end he settled down in Bali. He brought the victim up at a sand quarry in Gunaksa village, Klungkung regency, some 40 kilometers east of here, where both of them worked as laborers," Bali police detective chief Snr. Comr. Sadar Sebayang said.
About three months ago Syafaruddin began molesting the girl, which prompted her to flee to Yogyakarta.
"Earlier this week we officially detained the suspect and commenced an investigation," Sadar Sebayang added.
Bali Police chief Brig. Gen. Wayan Ardjana said here on Friday, however, there were no plans to extradite the accused and that police were having trouble locating the victim's family.
"We are working hard to establish contact with the victim's parents and relatives in Malaysia. Unfortunately, up until now we have not been able to establish such contact," he said.
The Bali police have sent the case's fact sheet and several pictures of the victim to Malaysian police via the Malaysian Embassy in Jakarta.
He added that the extradition agreement between Indonesia and Malaysia does not obligate police to surrender a suspect for trial in Malaysia.
Ardjana confirmed, however, that Kuala Lumpur had not yet made a request for Syafaruddin to be extradited.(zen)