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)