Slippers lead to kidnapped boy

Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang

Sri Hartati, 36, rushed toward the Tangerang Police detective chief's office. She had to maneuver her way through the crowd of journalists who blocked the entrance.

She was stunned for a moment when seeing the eight-year-old boy, wearing a white T-shirt, before starting to call to him, "Son, son, here is Mommy..."

The boy rushed to Sri, who was obviously filled with emotion. However, with no tears running down her face.

Then one of the journalists shouted out, "No tears?"

Sri abruptly started to cry and kissed her son many times. Muhamad Hegel Muthahhari, who was squeezed between his crying mother's arms, was also crying and kissed back his mother while his father Meirizal Zulkarnaen, 40, watched them also in tears.

The touching scene was a reunion of the parents and the boy, who had been abducted and held since July 30.

Hegel, who surprisingly remained calm after the abduction, said that he had been treated well. He was sick when the kidnappers took him from his school yard but his condition is better now.

Two thumbs up should be given to the Tangerang Police for successfully arresting Hegel's two alleged kidnappers in a room at the Horison Hotel, Ancol, North Jakarta, on Friday at around 11:30 a.m.

"We started by searching for Nurul Lestaluhu because the bank account to which Hegel's parents had transferred Rp 10 million (US$1,162.8) belonged to her. We tracked her down to a house in Cisarua, Bogor," said Tangerang Police chief Sr. Comr. Harry Prastowo.

A team of detectives, assisted by officers from Jakarta Police, were soon dispatched to Bogor just find out that the house was a rented property and no longer occupied by Nurul. But a neighbor said that Nurul had moved a year ago to Muara Baru, North Jakarta.

Eventually, the police found out she was living in a house in Jl. Luar Batang, Penjaringan, North Jakarta. When they arrived Nurul was not there but police searched the premises and found the slippers, bearing the logo of the Horison Hotel.

The team then waited for Nurul to arrive home. On Friday morning at around 10:30 a.m. she showed up.

Without a struggle, the police captured her, questioned her and took her directly to the hotel.

At 11:30 a.m., the police found Hegel safe in room 645 and arrested the man in the room with him, Doni Wibisono, 36, a resident of Kebon Kopi, East Jakarta.

Doni claimed that he was told only to watch Hegel.

"When we kidnapped the kid, I was waiting in the car with Ade. Hegel was abducted by Taher and Sofian under Saleh's instructions," he told reporters at Tangerang Police headquarters.

He said that the kidnapping was instigated to force Hegel's father Meirizal to settle his debts to Saleh and 150 others.

The kidnappers had originally demanded Rp 4 billion ransom since Saleh had assumed that Meirizal had Rp 4.5 billion in his account in Singapore.

When they found out that Meirizal was not that rich, they revised the ransom to Rp 400 million.

Meirizal told The Jakarta Post that his company, PT Artha Mulia Erska had faced financial problems since June.

However, he had signed an agreement with his clients stating that he would settle his debts between Aug. 10 and Aug. 30.

"From my 2,000 clients, only 150 of them were unsettled (owed money). Yet my son was kidnapped," he said.

Prastowo said that the kidnapping mastermind would be revealed if Taher was captured.