Police arrest kidnapper of gambling king's grandson

JAKARTA (JP): Police have arrested one of four suspected kidnappers of deceased gambling boss Nyo Beng Seng's grandson on Thursday, an officer said over the weekend.

Head of the city police's general crime investigation unit, Asst. Supt. Tito Karnavian, said on Saturday that the suspected kidnapper, who released the four-year-old boy on Dec. 9 after the boy's father paid US$40,000 in ransom, was arrested after police traced the cellular phone number he used to make the ransom calls.

He said A Ming, 32, along with his three accomplices, namely A Siong, Joko, and Joni, worked for the boy's father at his electronic business.

"The suspects lost a lot of money after they gambled on Dec. 4, and planned the kidnapping of their boss's four-year-old son to repay their debts," Tito told reporters at police headquarters.

Tito said that on Dec. 7, A Ming had gone to the Diakona playgroup on Jl. Pluit Samudra in North Jakarta which the boy, Niko, attended.

A Ming told the driver who was supposed to pick up Niko, that he was a relative of Niko's father Han Jin -- son of the late Nyo Beng Seng -- and had been told to drive Niko home.

The driver believed A Ming's story and allowed Niko, along with his two sisters, who also attended the playgroup, and a babysitter, to leave in A Ming's vehicle.

When the car almost reached Han Jin's house, A Ming pretended that the car had broken down and told all the occupants, except Niko, to get out of the vehicle, the police officer continued.

Once everybody else was out of the car, A Ming immediately sped off taking Niko with him.

A Ming then took Niko to a gas station in Grogol, West Jakarta, where the three other suspects were waiting.

The three men then took Niko to Sukabumi in West Java, while A Ming returned home.

On Dec. 7, A Ming used a cellular phone to contact Han Jin and asked for US$100,000 ransom.

"A Ming said that if Han Jin refused to pay the money, Niko would be killed, and his hand severed before being sent to Han Jin's house," Tito said.

Han Jin, however, negotiated with the kidnapper who then agreed to lower the ransom to $40,000.

The next day, A Ming called Han Jin and told him to go to the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Cengkareng to hand over the ransom.

When Han Jin arrived at the airport, however, A Ming then told him to go to the Pluit area in North Jakarta. When he arrived there, A Ming again told him to drive to Taman Mini Indonesia Indah park in East Jakarta, followed by Puncak in West Java, and finally to Tanjung Priok in North Jakarta.

When Han Jin arrived at a billboard on a freeway near Rawamangun in East Jakarta at about 1 a.m., A Ming told Han Jin to stop and drop the bag which contained the ransom money over the side of the freeway, under which the three other kidnappers were waiting.

The next morning, A Ming told Han Jin to pick up his son at a temple in Pluit.

Tito said A Ming was arrested while leaving his house at Duta Garden housing complex in West Jakarta in his BMW sedan. "Police found U.S. dollar bills which matched the bills Han Jin had given to the kidnappers."

"Han Jin wrote down the serial numbers of the bills before he gave them to the kidnappers," Tito said.

Han Jin's father Nyo Beng Seng, alias Suyadi Dharmansyah, who was a gambling boss and owner of Irama Tara recording company, was stabbed to death at his second wife's mansion in Pluit in 1994.

Police have experienced difficulty extraditing Beng Seng's business rival Hong Lie, who has been accused of masterminding the murder, from Singapore because Indonesia has no extradition treaty with the neighboring country. (jaw)