Robbery victim still traumatized by violence
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Aisyah, 37, could not believe her eyes on Thursday morning when she saw the suspected robbers -- three men and two women -- arrested earlier in the week, squatting in the corner of the Jakarta Police Headquarters' interrogation room.
She stared at them and pointed at the three men -- Alboin Simanjuntak, Alvon Hutajulu, alias Atom, and Alvon Sihombing, alias Akbal.
"Yes. It was they who robbed and beat me up and left me for dead," she said without blinking.
The two women, Ledis Susianita Saragih and Sri Lilis Agustini, she identified as their accomplices.
Still traumatized by the nightmare she had experienced in May, she quickly looked away from the men who had caused it all.
Aisyah, a resident of Kranggan Wetan, Jatirangon, Bekasi, was brutally robbed and beaten by a gang of robbers using a private shuttle service as a front.
She told a police investigator that she had been waiting for the No. 56 bus plying the route from the Indonesian Christian University (UKI) in Cawang, East Jakarta, to Cileungsi, Bogor, on May 28. At around 6:30 p.m. a Suzuki Carry omprengan, or a private car used to transport paying passengers, came by the university, the conductor shouting "Cileungsi, Cileungsi".
She decided to board the van upon seeing that it already carried two female passengers -- Ledis and Sri.
"I was shocked when one of the men locked the doors when I got in and another sat beside me, put his hand over my mouth, threatened me and forced me to give up all my belongings," she said.
When she refused, the two men started to hit her in the face, head and back, and yanked her hair before pushing her down on the car floor and kicking and stomping on her.
"One of them burned my leg with a cigarette butt. They forced me to give them the PIN (personal identification number) of my LippoBank and Bank Mandiri debit cards."
The robbers stole her earrings, necklace, wristwatch, Rp 1.5 million (US$176.47) of her monthly salary that she had just withdrawn and another Rp 2.5 million that they withdrew from her accounts through an ATM (automated teller machine).
The robbers left her on the road near Haj Hospital in Pondok Gede, East Jakarta. She was covered in bruises and had several broken bones.
Local residents found Aisyah and took her to the hospital for emergency treatment.
"I was treated there over two days," she said.
Aisyah was not the only victim of the gang.
Police said nine other victims had also reported similar cases.
"The number of victims must be even higher, because during the arrest we confiscated more than 15 wristwatches and three cell phones from the suspects," said Jakarta Police chief of detectives Sr. Comr. Mathius Salempang.
A senior police detective in charge of the investigation said they were still tracking down other gangs that used the same methods.
"We call on other victims of such robberies to report to the police and testify as witnesses, so that we are able to apprehend these criminals," he said.