Officer mobbed to death

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)