Police claim jealousy behind reporter's murder

ANTALYA, Turkey (JP): National Police Chief Lt. Gen. Dibyo Widodo has confirmed the arrest of the suspected killer of Fuad Muhammad Syafruddin, a local reporter in Yogyakarta.

"Based on our preliminary investigation, the reason behind the killing is purely a woman, who is the wife of the suspect," Dibyo, who was leading an Indonesian delegation at an Interpol meeting, told The Jakarta Post here yesterday.

The alleged love affair between the Bernas reporter and his ex-schoolmate Sunarti sparked her husband's jealousy, identified as Dwi Sumaji, 34, a worker at an advertising billboard producing firm.

According to the head of the National Criminal Investigation Department, Brig. Gen. Rusdihardjo, the local police also seized various pieces of material evidence from Sumaji's house in Sleman regency.

"Among the evidence is bloodstained clothes and an iron bar believed to have been used by the suspect to beat the journalist to death," said Rusdihardjo, who was here to accompany Dibyo.

Both officers received news of the arrest by phone from their staff in Jakarta and Yogyakarta.

Rusdihardjo did not specify whether the blood found on a shirt and trousers of Sumaji was of the same blood type as that of the late Syafruddin.

However, he admitted that Sumaji is related to the regent of Bantul whose policies had been criticized by Syafruddin in his writings.

"The arrest of the man is not the end of this case because we're still digging out more information and evidence to trace any other possible motive for the murder," Rusdihardjo told the Post.

He also said the suspect had admitted to killing the journalist purely out of jealousy. The suspect's wife Sunarti was formerly a schoolmate of the reporter at an Islamic junior high school in Bantul.

When asked to comment on Sunarti's statement that she had not met Syafruddin for many years, Rusdihardjo replied: "She can say anything she wants but we have the evidence to arrest her husband."

Meanwhile, in Yogyakarta, families and friends of the suspect protested the arrest. Sunarti said her husband was at home on the night of Aug. 13, when the assault on the journalist, also known as Udin, took place.

"My husband is innocent. He never went out at night because he has throat problems," Sunarti said. "On that day, I was at home at four in the afternoon. My husband got home after the dusk prayer and went right to bed."

The suspect's parents said Dwi Sumaji, also known as Iwik, is a kindhearted man who could not stand the sight of blood.

Yogyakarta police chief Col. Mulyono Sulaiman insisted the police would not have arrested Dwi without strong evidence. He did not elaborate.

"We'll see in court whether people were right in their accusation that police contrived this arrest. We are only enforcing the law," he said.

The Yogyakarta office of the Legal Aid Institute said in a statement that the arrest was too hasty. "This is all a scheme of the police. We demand that Dwi Sumaji be released," the statement said.

Udin, 35, died after an unknown group of people attacked him in his home in Bantul, Yogyakarta on Aug. 13. It is strongly suspected that Udin's death was brought about because of his critical reporting on certain people. (bsr/30)