Man reportedly nabbed over judge's murder

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)