Police need psychiatrist to question young mother

JAKARTA (JP): Police questioning a 25-year-old mother who killed her two infant boys last month said they need a psychiatrist to help them question her about the incident.

They said the psychiatrist is also needed to help determine if the suspect was mentally unstable when she murdered her children.

"We, therefore, need a psychiatrist to accompany her during the interrogations," City Police spokesman Lt. Col. Bambang Permantoro told reporters yesterday.

Bambang said that Sofiah, who also tried to kill herself after slashing her two children's necks and wrists, has recovered from her self-inflicted injuries.

"In the meantime, the suspect is still being treated at the police hospital in Kramat Jati, East Jakarta," Bambang said. "We hope that the interrogation can start this week so that the dossiers can be completed as soon as possible," he added.

Reliable police sources, however, said that Sofiah had told police detectives soon after recovering from her injuries that she claimed she could not remember what she had done to her children.

"I don't remember anything. I was out of control when I killed my sons," she was quoted as telling the police.

The suspect also said that the tragedy stemmed from frustration because of her family's economic hardship and marital disharmony.

She was quoted as saying that she was unhappy a few days before the incident when her husband, Rasmin, 29, failed to find a better job and always came home drunk late at night.

Whenever Sofiah asked Rasmin, an ojek (motorcycle taxi) driver, to explain his behavior he would slap his wife's face.

The tragedy took place on Saturday morning of June 17 at Sofiah's parents' two-story house in Central Jakarta, while Rasmin was at work nearby.

Sofiah attempted suicide by slitting her own throat, after slashing the veins in the necks and wrists of her sons Frans Syahriza Yusuf, 17 days old, and Rifan Fahroji Yusuf, 12 months.

Police reports say that Rasmin discovered his unconscious wife and the lifeless bodies of his sons after breaking in through an upstairs window at the insistence of his mother-in-law, Ismiagen.

During police questioning, Ismiagen said that she heard the children screaming, which caused her to go upstairs and ask Sofiah to bring them down for breakfast.

Sofiah told her mother that they would come down in no time.

After waiting several minutes, Ismiagen went upstairs again. She got no response to her call and found that the room was locked from the inside.

Panicked, she asked her son Yanto to call Rasmin home to check on what might have happened.

Sofiah was rushed to the Police Hospital in Kramat Jati, East Jakarta, where she has remained under intensive care for over two weeks.

She could face 15 years in prison if found guilty of murder. (bsr)