Man reportedly nabbed over judge's murder

JAKARTA (JP): A man was reportedly arrested over the murder of Justice M. Syafiuddin Kartasasmita early Tuesday morning, according to two sources from the Central Jakarta Police Headquarters.

The man was reportedly arrested at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport where he was found hiding in one of the rooms.

"We have been searching for this man for quite sometime now. He has been very elusive. We finally managed to catch him at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport," a police source told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

"He could have been trying to escape... he must have known that the police were looking for him."

Another police source confirmed this, saying the arrest was made by the Central Jakarta Police with the help of the Indonesian Military (TNI).

However, by late Tuesday afternoon, Central Jakarta Police chief Sr. Comr. Mathius Salempang and Central Jakarta Police chief of detectives Comr. Angesta Romano Yoyol firmly denied the arrest, saying the story was fabricated.

"The story is false. We have not arrested anyone," Mathius said.

On Tuesday evening, city police spokesman Sr. Comr. Anton Bachrul Alam admitted that police had arrested a man identified as Wellus on Tuesday, but the arrest was made over the murder of another man identified as Daud Arifin.

"Daud was murdered two days after Justice Syafiuddin. The murder crime scenes of both Syafiuddin and Daud were relatively in the same area of Sunter, North Jakarta," Anton told reporters on Tuesday night.

After visiting the detention center and detectives' office at the Central Jakarta Police Headquarters, reporters failed to find the man who had been reportedly arrested.

By Tuesday evening, the cellular phones of Mathius, his deputy, Yoyol, and all the detectives at the Central Jakarta Police Headquarters had been switched off.

The police sources who informed the reporters about the arrest said the arrested man was not being held in the Central Jakarta Police subprecincts or by the city police.

"He is being kept in a safe place for police to interrogate him. This person's identity will be revealed soon," one of the sources said.

Separately, city police chief of detectives Sr. Comr. Adang Rochyana said on Tuesday that police had questioned at least four justices as witnesses in the Syafiuddin murder case.

They are Supreme Court Deputy Chief Justice Taufik, justices Artidjo Alkostar, M. Said Harahap and R. Sunu Wahadi.

Syafiuddin, who sentenced former president Soeharto's son Hutomo Mandala Putra and his golfing buddy Bob Hassan to jail for corruption, was shot dead last Thursday morning while driving to work at the Supreme Court.

Eyewitnesses said they saw four men on two motorcycles forcing Syafiuddin to stop his Honda CRV on Jl. Serdang Kemayoran, Central Jakarta at about 8:30 a.m.

According to the National Police Forensics Laboratory (Puslabfor), the bullets used to shoot Syafiuddin were manufactured by state ammunitions producer PT Pindad. (ylt/tso)