Suspected wife killer charged with premeditated murder

Suspected wife killer charged with premeditated murder

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Jakarta Police have charged a Sumatra man and his cousin for
premeditated murder of the man's Japanese wife for more than Rp
800 million (US$83,000) of her money.

City police charged Eddie Alharisons, 25, of premeditated
murder of Tomoko Ishizawa, 30.

General crimes unit chief Sr. Comr. Suhardi Alius said based
on evidence and witnesses, Eddie and his cousin Jonni Rahman, 21,
formulated a plan to murder Tomoko for the Rp 800 million in her
bank account.

"After learning that his wife had a lot of money, he
cooperated with his cousin Jonni to plan to kill his wife,"
Suhardi said.

Article 340 of the Criminal Code on premeditated murder
carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Another suspect,
Julia Asmarani, who is Eddie's second wife, was charged with
helping the murder, Suhardi said.

All the suspects were now being detained at the West Sumatra
Police detention center, pending completion of their case files,
which Suhardi said would be delivered shortly to the West Sumatra
Prosecutor's Office.

Jakarta Police revealed on Wednesday that they had arrested
Eddie in his home in Payakumbuh, West Sumatra, on Saturday, after
several days of investigation.

The investigation was made following an earlier report from
the Japanese Embassy that Ishizawa had been missing since April.

Eddie admitted to police he had killed his wife on April 26
because he wanted to get Ishizawa's money and confessed to
burying his wife in a forest.

The police later unearthed Ishizawa's body and examined it in
police laboratory.

"We have a lot of useful information from the Japanese police,
including Eddie's e-mail records and CCTV records from Citibank
proving that Eddie had withdrawn (Ishizawa's) money hundreds of
times from the bank," Suhardi said.

Based on that evidence the police arrested Eddie and the two
other suspects in Payakumbuh.

"We have examined Ishizawa's body. Her family members, who
have come to West Sumatra, will incinerate her body today
(Thursday), and will take her remains to Japan," Suhardi said.

Eddie married Ishizawa, who some reports said was a plant
researcher, in Yogyakarta in 2003. After a year of marriage,
Tomoko went back to Japan. Both continued to stay in contact by
e-mail.

During this period, Eddie married Julia but he kept his second
marriage a secret from Ishizawa.

On April 25, Eddie and Rahman picked up Ishizawa who had flown
from Japan to Pekanbaru Airport and brought her to Payakumbuh.

Eddie strangled his wife in their bed with a plastic rope at 5
a.m. on April 26. Rahman later helped tie up and bury Tomoko's
body.

Tomoko's family, who expected her to come home on May 1,
reported her disappearance to the Japanese police after they
could not contact her for more than a week. The Japanese police
contacted the embassy in Jakarta, which then reported the case to
the Jakarta Police.