Man arrested over alleged role in Tambora murder

JAKARTA (JP): Police have captured one of the two people suspected of murdering a man and stashing his body in the trunk of a President taxi early Sunday in North Jakarta.

But city police spokesman Lt. Col. Aritonang refused to provide details about the suspect.

Local newspapers said both the attackers and the victim were hoodlums involved in a turf war in the Kali Besar area, Tambora, North Jakarta.

The two unidentified men forced a President taxi driver, Rochmadi, 23, to take the man they had beaten up to a nearby hospital. They put the victim in the taxi's trunk.

"I couldn't do anything to refuse their will because they put a knife to my side," he said as quoted by the police.

Rochmadi said the hoodlums had been involved in a brawl in front of Diskotek Kaliber in Tambora, where the two suspects had attacked the victim.

But before the taxi reached the hospital, the vehicle ran out of gas and stalled. The two passengers became angry and repeatedly stabbed the man in the trunk to death.

In a separate incident, Second Private Suntianto of the Army's Law Enforcement Department was beaten up by an angry mob Monday morning for allegedly stealing a motorcycle in Pulo Gebang, East Jakarta.

The owner of the motorcycle, Katmin, said that about 7 a.m. he left his Honda Astrea with its engine running in his yard on Jl. Swadaya, East Jakarta.

A few minutes later he returned to discover that his motorbike was missing.

"I looked around and I saw the man (Suntianto) push the motorbike away from my house. I yelled for help and the neighbors started to run after him," Katmin told the police.

Suntianto was detained at Jakarta Military Police Headquarters before he was handed over to his unit for further investigation.

Jakarta Military Command spokesman Lt. Col. D.J. Nachrowi told reporters Monday that the authorities wanted to investigate whether the suspect was a military officer or an impostor. (edt)