Police reluctant to elaborate on Hutagalung case

JAKARTA (JP): The police are now saying that an Indonesian man arrested recently in Malaysia might be a suspect in last year's killing of six family members in Bekasi, despite reports to the contrary yesterday.

City Police Chief Maj. Gen. Dibyo Widodo told reporters here that the man, identified as Salim, is still in Malaysia but could soon be extradited to Jakarta if police here can collect enough evidence to prove his role in 1994's most gruesome murder.

"But I cannot say when the extradition will take place, because the investigation is still underway," Dibyo said.

"I really believe that you all fully understand what I mean," he said. "So, please do not force me to clarify it."

On Monday, Dibyo issued a confusing statement that the man who was arrested by Malaysian police for failing to show legal entry documents "is not the person" they want for the killing.

"It's true that there was a man questioned there but he's not the person we want," said Dibyo on Monday, adding that the investigation of Salim, carried out by senior Jakarta detectives in Malaysia, concluded that his fingerprints and face did not match those of Suyono, alias Gendut ("Fatso"), the prime suspect in the murder. Salim is thin, not fat like Gendut, Dibyo told reporters on Monday.

Yesterday Dibyo confirmed that Bekasi police detectives are still collecting "extra information" in connection with Salim's possible role in the killing of Herbin Hutagalung's wife and four children plus his sister-in-law.

Bekasi police brought Herbin and several pieces of murder evidence to City Police Headquarters on Monday for reasons still unknown. Many speculate that Herbin was called in to identify Salim. But Dibyo declined to explain his department's motives.

Since the killing on Jan. 5 last year, police have only named Suyono, alias Gendut, as the solitary suspect in the murders. But, a year later, Police Chief Maj. Gen. Mochammad Hindarto (at that time), announced that the brutal killing was committed by at least six persons, including Gendut.

According to Hindarto, police actually arrested one of the six suspected killers a month after the killings took place without notifying the public.

The man, identified as Marsi, 26, and was arrested in his hometown of Tulungagung, East Java,

Marsi has since been used by the police to help find Gendut and the other suspects around Java, Bali and Sumatra.

According to Hindarto, Marsi had come to his friend, Gendut, one day in January last year asking for a job as a construction worker. Gendut asked him to come along with him and find a job together with four other people.

The group came to Herbin's house in a minivan and committed the crime, Hindarto said. (bsr)