Officer mobbed to death

JAKARTA (JP): Angry residents of Rengas village in Ciputat, South Jakarta, mobbed a city military officer to death, after they caught him trying to run off with stolen goods from a high school building in the area early on Saturday morning.

City police spokesman High Comr. Anton Bahrul Alam identified the officer as Chief Corporal M. Fathur, 42, who was caught stealing by a witness, identified as Deni, from the SMUN II Pondok Ranji high school in Ciputat.

"The military officer, accompanied by two other men, was caught running after having stolen a television set, a computer and two printers from the school. When Deni saw him, he screamed 'Thief!'," Anton told reporters at city police headquarters.

"Fathur's two accomplices escaped on a motorcycle. Angry residents immediately surrounded Fathur, and beat him up badly before dragging him along the ground for about 100 meters. They continued beating him until he died."

Separately, Ciputat police detective chief Second Insp. Subkhan said residents knew that Fathur, a father of four, had been responsible for several crimes in the area and they were closely watching him and his two partners on Saturday morning, after the thieves entered the school compound.

"When they took the goods, residents wasted no time and surrounded them. Two men got away, riding on a stolen motorcycle. Fathur attempted to escape the scene, but failed," Subkhan said at the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital morgue in Central Jakarta.

"What happen to him was tragic. Fathur once worked as a driver of a minister during the Soeharto regime," Toto, a relative of the victim, said at the morgue. (ylt/lup)