Source says family member behind Boedyharto murder
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Police detectives were sent out of town on Sunday to track down those involved in the cold-blooded murder of the president director of PT Asaba and his bodyguard on Saturday morning.
"Our detectives are still in the field tracking down the suspects. Some are working out of town," North Jakarta Police detectives' chief Comr. Andhap Budhi Refianto told reporters.
Boedyharto Angsono, 55, and his bodyguard First Sgt. Edy Siyet, 33, who is also a member of the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus), were in the Sasana Krida sports stadium parking lot on Jl. Jembatan Tiga in Penjaringan, North Jakarta, where they were going to play basketball, when the brutal shooting took place.
Edy was opening the car's left rear door for Boedyharto when the hit man shot him in the head. Boedyharto tried to run away from the car but the hitman managed to shoot him in the back.
With Boedyharto prostrate on the ground, the hit man shot him too in the head before fleeing the scene on a motorcycle ridden by another suspect who was waiting nearby.
However, Boedyharto's driver Darjan survived the incident as he was still inside the bulletproof Mercedes-Benz S600 car.
This is the 13th shooting incident that has happened in Jakarta since January.
A forensic medicine expert at the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital, Dr. Zulhasmar Syamsu, said that Boedyharto and Edy had both died instantly at the scene of the shootings.
"I found a bullet entry hole at the back of Edy's head, with the bullet penetrating up as far as the forehead, which damaged his brain. In Boedyharto's body, there were two gunshot wounds to the head and three to the body," he said.
Following the autopsy, Zulhasmar said that the fatal shots had been fired less than 60 centimeters from the victims as he had found carbon traces on the victims' skin.
Police also found eight empty bullet cases from an FN pistol at the scene.
Andhap said that a family feud involving a fugitive convict named Gunawan Santoso, Boedyharto's son-in-law, was behind in the shootings.
The allegation was revealed earlier by a source close to Boedyharto's family who spoke on condition of anonymity. The source said that Gunawan was the mastermind behind the shootings.
The source said that Gunawan had allegedly embezzled Rp 25 billion (US$3.05 million) from Boedyharto's seven companies, which he had been assigned to manage after marrying Alice, one of Boedyharto's four children, in 1991.
The embezzlement was uncovered by PT Asaba finance director Paulus Tejakusuma.
In 1999, Gunawan hired 200 people to stage a rally against Boedyharto, ostensibly protesting against alleged tax evasion.
A prosecution was later taken against Gunawan for the embezzlement as a result of which he was convicted and sentenced to two years and seven months in jail.
He was incarcerated in Salemba Penitentiary, moved to Sukamiskin Penitentiary in Bandung, and then to Kuningan Penitentiary in Cirebon, West Java. Gunawan became a fugitive after he escaped Kuningan Penitentiary on Jan. 15 this year.
The source alleged that Gunawan had been plotting attacks targeting Paulus, Boedyharto and his family in revenge for the fate that had befallen Gunawan's.
Paulus was shot on Jl. Angkasa in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, on June 6. He was driving his car when he was shot by a hitman on a motorcycle. He suffered severe chest injuries and is reportedly undergoing treatment in Singapore.
Following the shooting of Paulus, the source said that Boedyharto's family had received four faxed threats on different occasions.
"We passed the faxes on to the police but they did nothing until Pak Boedyharto was shot," the source said.
The source also said that more of Boedyharto's family members might be on the hit list unless the police managed to capture Gunawan and the others involved.