Police shoot dead three, arrest eight 'kidnappers'

JAKARTA (JP): City police detectives have shot dead three alleged taxi bandits, who specialized in preying on foreigners, and arrested the gang's eight other accomplices in a shoot-out at their hideouts in Sarua, Sawangan, south of here, on Wednesday evening.

After incapacitating the alleged armed bandits, the police then rushed into two small houses the men rented and found a German citizen, who had been reportedly kidnapped by the men, an official said Thursday.

According to city police spokesman Lt. Col. Edward Aritonang, who also joined the raid, German Andreas Roxane was found by detectives in a very weak condition.

"We then quickly rushed him to a nearby hospital. He may be able to leave the hospital today," Aritonang told The Jakarta Post Thursday.

Police, he said, are still investigating the kidnapping of the German citizen.

So far, the eight surviving suspects have admitted to kidnapping people, including a South Korean, a Frenchman and a local female employee, Aritonang said.

The gang reportedly ran their operation by acting as taxi drivers in the city and targeted foreigners, he said.

"They only picked up people who didn't really know the city's roads," he explained.

The passengers were then driven to a quiet place in Sawangan, where the other gang members waited.

The Frenchman was released after he paid a ransom of Rp 60 million in cash. From the local employee of PT Satelindo, the gang allegedly received a ransom of Rp 20 million.

South Korean Ok Nam King was killed and Rp 40 million was withdrawn from his local wife's bank account, Aritonang said.

"But we are still cross-checking the suspects' confession as to whether they first killed the Korean or withdrew the money, also their reasons for killing the foreigner," he added.

Tip-off

The raid at the gang's hideouts in the densely populated area of Sarua was based what Ok's wife, Hermawati, told the police, he said.

Ok, 52, a design manager of a garment company in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, was believed to have been kidnapped by members of the gang on Oct. 3 after he left a discotheque in the Blok M area in South Jakarta, one of his staff members, Yuspa Maruhisi, said.

"Soon after the kidnapping, Hermawati received threats from the gang, who asked her to write a letter authorizing one of them, Fikri, to withdraw Rp 40 million from her bank account if she wanted her husband returned.

"She had to address the letter to Fikri (using the Sarua address)," Aritonang said.

Hermawati, he said, immediately fulfilled the gang's requirement but received no information on the fate of Ok until Thursday, when forensic experts convinced her that an unclaimed decomposed body found on Aug. 7 floating in the Kali Angke River in West Jakarta was the body of her husband.

Records at the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital revealed that the dead body was found by local residents with his mouth and eyes bound with adhesive tape.

Aritonang said the gang's hideouts had been under surveillance by detectives, led by Jakarta Police detectives chief Col. Gories Mere, for almost a week.

"It was the crooks who started to fire at us. They even ignored our warning shots," he said.

No other people were injured during the 7 p.m. Wednesday clash even though a lot of local residents witnessed the shoot-out, he said.

The three dead suspects were later identified as Zul alias Edo, 29, Juarsa, 28, and Darpan alias Doni, 27.

The eight arrested suspects were Mulyadi, Nasran, Indra, Choirin, Fikri, Ruslan, Topan and Andri.

The police also seized an FN 46, a revolver, two daggers and a sickle in the raid.

The police have exhumed Ok's body from the Legok public cemetery in Tangerang in an attempt to collect evidence to charge the arrested suspects.

"Ok's family is now convinced that the body is his after we compared his teeth with his dental records and showed them identifying marks on his body," forensic expert Mun'im Idries said.

The police are also probing the possible role of the gang in a January robbery of two Japanese taxi passengers in Sawangan, Aritonang said.

In the incident, one of the Japanese, Yamato, 32, died at the scene from severe stab wounds to the chest and neck. The two men were robbed by their taxi driver and an awaiting accomplice on their way home after visiting a karaoke pub in Blok M. (emf)