Police closer to disclosing murder case of Sembiring
JAKARTA (JP): Police announced that they have identified the gang members who allegedly killed ex-convict Johny Sembiring.
"We've come closer to disclosing the case. The killers are suspected to be debt collectors but we have yet to detain them," said Maj. Gen. Mochammad Hindarto, Chief of the City Police.
The two-star general police general said yesterday that officers from the crime investigation directorate have questioned a number of persons from debt collection groups operating in and around the city in connection with the death of the 62-year-old ex-con turned debt collector.
"The number is so high that I forget to count it, but most of them operate as law firms or companies like other (legal) businesses," Hindarto said.
He refused to elaborate, saying that the investigation into the two-week-old murder is still going on.
Hindarto, however, reiterated that the murderers are believed to be debt collectors, perhaps Sembiring's competitors.
Late last week, Hindarto said he believed debt collectors killed controversial Sembiring out of inter-gang rivalry.
Hindarto pointed out the way the kidnappers rammed Sembiring's BMW before they captured him. The captors deliberately hit the victim's car from behind with a Kijang minivan three times to force him to leave the car so that they could grab him.
Sembiring, 62, and his driver Tumiran, 28, were kidnapped by a group of seven men two weeks ago, shortly after he left his office on Jl. Tanah Abang II, Central Jakarta.
After the van hit his car repeatedly, both Tumiran and Sembiring got out of the car to settle the matter.
The seven men then ordered the two into the van at gunpoint.
Blindfolded
The seven men then tied up and blindfolded their hostages, so that they would not know their destination.
Tumiran was released by the kidnappers later that evening in Jonggol district, Bogor. Sembiring was found dead the following day in Cariu district, an area not far from Jonggol.
Sembiring's car was found burned on the same day in Tambun district, Bekasi.
Preliminary autopsy results of Sembiring's body, according to police, showed no signs of gunshot wounds, nor injections. One of his ribs was broken.
According to examining doctors a person can die from pressure applied to the side of their chest if the pressure lasts up to six minutes.
The rib's fracture left a wound on Sembiring's chest, which Bogor police initially mistook for a bullet wound.
Sembiring, 62, was a notorious robber for three decades from the 1950s on, but in the 1980s he sought to rehabilitate himself by becoming a debt collector and part-time evangelist who preached to inmates. (bsr)