Police declare 10 as suspects in illegal abortions
Police declare 10 as suspects in illegal abortions
JAKARTA (JP): Depok Police have declared 10 people as suspects
for allegedly conducting and/or assisting in at least 35
abortions since September last year.
The 10 include two main suspects, Habibah, 50, and Indrayati,
24, both midwives, who have confessed to having performed the
abortions.
Other suspects are five female nurses who assisted in the
abortions and three men who buried the fetuses, Depok Police
deputy chief of detectives First Lt. A. Keman said on Sunday.
"We are still searching for Fauzi, the middleman, who led the
pregnant ladies to Habibah," Keman said.
"We had to go all the way to Tegal, Central Java, to arrest
Habibah at her parent's house."
Last Thursday, two girls, identified as Isma and Yuli,
witnessed two men carrying plastic-wrapped bundles and burying
them in an open field in Pondok Terong village, Pancoran Mas,
Depok.
Isma, who happens to be the daughter of a Jagakarsa Police
officer, immediately reported the incident to her father, who in
turn alerted Pancoran Mas Police.
Police dug up the field and found 30 fetuses. The graves of
five more were later located in the backyard of the Anugerah
clinic, where Habibah practiced, on Jl. Koja, Pasar Cisalak,
Cimanggis.
Police say Habibah asked Indrayati to assist her in the
abortion business and open her another clinic, the Samudera
clinic, in the Samudera complex, Block B-2, Pancoran Mas.
Police and residents unearthed the fetuses, aged between two
weeks and 37 weeks, wrapped in plastic bags or towels. Other
fetuses were found in a clay pot buried in the field.
At both clinics police found several packages of syringes,
surgical equipment including varying sizes of scissors, catheters
and at least 30 prescribed Cytotac tablets.
Cytotac is administered vaginally and induces labor.
Habibah said she had worked for four years in the
administration division of the 0614 Cirebon Military District
Command, before beginning work in Aug. 1999 at the clinic in the
Alam Raya housing complex, located behind the Harapan hospital.
She quit the job in late January this year to work full-time
at the Anugerah clinic, which she leased for some Rp 4 million
per year.
"I have aborted fetuses between two weeks of age and nearly
six months. I received up to Rp 2 million for the latter,"
Habibah said.
Habibah said that in performing an abortion, she would use a
local anesthetic, insert a Cytotac tablet into a patient's vagina
and wait.
A police officer, who requested anonymity, said Habibah had
also caused the death of a patient after the woman hemorrhaged
profusely.
"We just received this information today (Sunday). At the
clinic in Alam Raya, Habibah received this patient sometime
during the Ramadhan fasting month (between December 1999-January
2000) and tried to perform an abortion but failed. The result was
fatal," the source said.
The source said the patient, who was from Pekalongan, Central
Java, had been impregnated by her stepfather and had wanted an
abortion. She had gone to the Raden Saleh hospital in Cikini,
Central Jakarta, where she was refused an abortion.
"At Raden Saleh, the lady met with Fauzi, who lives on Jl.
Paseban 45, Central Jakarta. Fauzi sent the woman to Habibah in
Alam Raya," the source said.
When asked about the matter, Habibah said, "I gave the patient
to Indrayati. She foolishly took out the intravenous tube which
was feeding the mother with material that would give her strength
and stop the bleeding," Habibah said.
Indrayati flatly denied she had ever treated that patient.
(ylt)