Parents urge police help free kidnapped son

Parents urge police help free kidnapped son

Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang

Parents of a kidnapped boy are calling on Jakarta Police to
deploy more officers to help find their eight-year-old son, who
was abducted last Wednesday.

"It's already the eighth day and we have no news about our son
at all. I think the city police should have assigned more
detectives to search for the alleged kidnappers," the boy's
father said.

The boy was in poor health when he was abducted. The
kidnappers had called the mother, asking what medicine he had
been prescribed to ease his fever.

The father said that his family had coordinated with Tangerang
Police and Serpong Police subprecinct but there had been no
results.

Tangerang Police deputy chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Tavip Yulianto
said that the boy's safety was their major concern.

However, he admitted that the police are facing difficulties
in solving the case because telecommunications company PT Telkom
and the bank, who know the identity of the recipient of the
ransom money, have refused to give information to the police.

He complained that although a new law on banking grants police
the authority to ask a bank to close the account of someone
allegedly involved in crime, the bank was not cooperating with
the police investigation.

The kidnappers demanded a ransom of Rp 4 billion (US$470,588)
from the parents. Part of the ransom, Rp 20 million, was
transferred to an account in BCA on Monday but it was still at
the account on Tuesday afternoon.

The father of the boy has not allowed police to look into his
company's affairs.

"It's not merely a kidnapping case. We have to see it from
other points of view. Kidnapping is definitely against the law.
Whoever did it, was someone known to the family," Tavip said.

The boy, whose identity has been kept secret for his own
safety, was abducted last Wednesday at his school in Serpong,
Tangerang, by two men using a blue Toyota Kijang van with license
plate B 7095 NN.