Police hope to learn motive behind fiery death

TANGERANG (JP): With police no closer to making sense of the burning to death of a public minivan driver on Monday, the three suspects persisted that setting the man alight was an attempt to exorcise a bad spirit.

Speaking at Benda Police substation, the suspects, aged between 22 and 29 years, reportedly claimed they set fire to Mohamad Ridwan Harahap before attacking him with a knife in an effort to purge a bad spirit called "Ucci".

The killing, which has baffled the local police, took place at the victim's home in Jurumudi Baru village of Benda district in the early hours of Monday.

The three suspects, identified as the victim's wife Anisaful Mardiah Siregar, her brother Hasanuddin Siregar and sister Nuruloan Siregar, were immediately detained by Benda Police detectives and are currently being investigation for their alleged roles in the murder. Police say they hope to discover a logical motive for the killing.

Anisaful apparently said at the police station on Wednesday that she was in a trance during the murder and that "a power moved my hand and I heard voices telling me to get rid of the bad spirit inside my husband's body."

The family decided to perform an exorcism on Mohamad after he kept being possessed by an evil spirit called Ucci, she said.

"We recited a special prayer before the ritual," Anisaful recalled with a puzzled face, adding that she agreed with Hasanuddin's idea to proceed with the rite.

During the prayer, Anisaful claimed to hear voices which told her to free her husband of the demon.

"I believe that Allah himself ordered me to do so," she said.

Hasanuddin then reportedly doused Mohamad with kerosene and Anisaful set him on fire, she recalled, pacing the police station's porch.

"I don't know how it happened as I saw my husband struggle with excruciating pain when the flames burned his body. But I felt satisfied as the bad spirit had already left his body through the anus," she told the reporters.

"The most important thing now is that my husband is safe in heaven," Anisaful said while holding her two-year-old daughter on her lap.

Hasanuddin, however, was locked inside a cell and took some time to break his silence.

"Who said I was possessed during the incident? I'm not a member of a cult or something.

"I am here because I broke the law ... but what I did was in accordance to teachings in the Koran. The evil had to be cast out of my brother-in-law's body," Hasanuddin retorted.

"I asked the spirit (in Mohamad's body) and it kept answering 'I am Ucci' all the time. It wouldn't go away," he said. "I had no choice but to eliminate the spirit."

Hasanuddin said the evil spirit stayed in Mohamad's body even after he was set aflame.

"I had to chase away the demon ... I took a knife and started to slash Mohamad's body while Anisaful and Nuruloan kept praying," he recalled.

"It was one tough, bad demon. I cut it (the demon) in the thigh but it moved to the chest. I slit the chest but it moved to the mouth," he said angrily.

Both Hasanuddin and Anisaful claimed to have seen the spirit eventually leave Mohamad's body through his anus.

"I feel relieved. His soul is happily in heaven now," Hasanuddin said.

Benda Police chief First Lt. Budi Wardoyo, however, said the police would continue to investigate the case and would wait for the three suspects to come to their senses.

"It's hard to take their statements if they act bizarre like this. It's a case that is logically hard to accept but we will process the case to the point of indictment," Budi pledged. (41/edt)