Police deny arrest of Hutagalung family murder

JAKARTA (JP): Police have denied arresting the long-wanted killer of Herbin Hutagalung's family in Bekasi, saying that the man recently arrested in Malaysia is not the person they want.

"It's true that there was man being questioned there but he's not the person we want," City Police Chief Maj. Gen. Dibyo Widodo said yesterday.

According to the two-star general, investigation of that person, carried out by senior Jakarta detectives in Malaysia until Sunday, concluded that the fingerprints and the face of the man, identified only as SL, 50, did not match with those of Suyono, alias Gendut ("Fatso"), the prime suspect in the most gruesome murder last year.

Moreover, the man is not fat like Gendut, said Dibyo.

If true, this is the second time police have arrested the wrong person in connection with the case. Some weeks after the killing a man was arrested only to be released soon after the officers decided he was not the murderer.

SL, plantation worker, was arrested recently and questioned by Malaysian police after he failed to show complete identity papers for entry into Malaysia from Indonesia, said Dibyo.

But the general did not say whether SL is still in Malaysia or has been brought to Jakarta for questioning.

"We're still working on the case," Dibyo answered repeatedly.

When asked to clarify, Dibyo, who was accompanied by Col. Nurfauzi, head of the City Police Crime Investigation Directorate, simply said: "Please interpret it yourselves."

Although Dibyo said that the man was not Gendut, the general revealed that SL is a construction worker and comes from East Java, characteristics similar to those of Gendut.

The main suspect, Dibyo said, is still hiding somewhere in Malaysia.

Nurfauzi, who led a number of other detectives from Indonesia, arrived home over the weekend after five days in Malaysia to identify the person.

The police colonel reportedly arrived here on Sunday together with the suspect.

Several sources in Bekasi said that local police officers took Herbin and material evidence to a certain place yesterday evening for an unknown reason.

It could not be confirmed whether Herbin and the evidence had been taken to the City Police Headquarters to meet with and identify the man brought from Malaysia.

The Jakarta Post was told by reliable sources on Saturday that a man believed to be the prime suspect in the killing of Herbin's wife, sister-in-law and four children, was arrested at an unidentified city in Malaysia early last week.

The source, who asked for anonymity, said that all documents collected from his hometown in Tulungagung, East Java, matched.

Since the killing on Jan. 5 last year, police have named Gendut as the only suspect in the murder of the two elderly women and the four youngsters, aged between three and 18 years.

The six victims were brutally clubbed to death with blunt objects at the family's house in Kampung Sawah, Jatiwarna village in Pondok Gede, Bekasi, some 30 kilometers east of here. (bsr)