Reporters beat up intelligence officer

Reporters beat up intelligence officer

JAKARTA (JP): An intelligence officer was beaten up on
Thursday by a group of angry reporters and photographers for
blocking and pulling the collars of some of their colleagues when
they tried to interview former president Soeharto's golfing buddy
Mohamad "Bob" Hasan.

The officer, identified as First Sgt. Ramli, was carrying an
FN .45 pistol and wearing a brown vest. He was pretending to be
one of the reporters who covered Hasan's six-hour questioning at
the Attorney General's Office in connection with widespread
allegations of corruption.

When a group of photographers tried to take Bob's picture,
Ramli got in their way and pulled at the collars of the pushy
reporters after Hasan proved very reluctant to answer their
questions.

"He was disturbing our job. Imagine, he grabbed my collar and
tried to pull me away. That was why I kicked him away," Arbain
Rambey, a photographer for the Kompas daily told The Jakarta
Post.

After that Ramli tried to bug other reporters. "We then
shouted: 'Thief... thief...' and he apparently got scared and ran
away with a bunch of angry reporters ran after him.

"Unfortunately the rather chubby officer tripped, causing his
gun to fall onto the road," Arbain said.

The officer suffered bruises all over his body and face after
at least 10 reporters and photographers jumped on him and punched
him.

"One of the reporters hit him hard in his nose. Well... he
was really a pain in the ass. We were really disturbed by then.
Imagine, we had waited from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. It was hot and we
were very hungry," Arbain recalled.

Ramli was later saved by staff from the Attorney General's
Office.

"We suspected that he (Ramli) was one of Bob Hasan's
bodyguards. Even after he was taken in, some of the angry
reporters tried to break down the door," Arbain said.

The officer, who turned out to be from the Jakarta Military
Command, was reportedly sent back to his base, pending a further
investigation. (edt)