Three officers charged with buying stolen car
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Jakarta Police announced on Wednesday there was sufficient evidence to charge three police officers with receiving a stolen vehicle.
West Jakarta Police chief Sr. Comr. Safaruddin said Chief Brig. Samsi from the Semanan Police station in Tangerang and Chief Brig. Budi Utomo and Adj. First Insp. Endang from the Lebak Police precinct, also in Tangerang, had been detained since Tuesday.
The officers were detained after police questioned four suspects in the robbery and murder of an Express Taxi driver in late October.
"We have sufficient evidence that the three officers purchased a stolen car from an auto theft ring. We have detained them for further questioning," Safaruddin told The Jakarta Post.
He said the officers would face dismissal and jail terms if found guilty of the crime.
Safaruddin said the officers would be charged under Article 480 of the Criminal Code on buying stolen goods. The article carries a maximum punishment of four years in prison.
On Oct. 28, a factory security guard in Cikupa, Tangerang, found an unidentified body. The body was buried in Legok, Tangerang, but the next day the family of Sarino, a driver in Express Taxi's Bintaro pool, identified the body from a photo. Sarino's body was exhumed and taken to Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital in Central Jakarta for an autopsy last Sunday.
On Monday, police said they had arrested four suspects in the robbery and murder. The four were identified as Cepi, alias Play, 21, Ropi, 21, Jubaedi, 21, and Dedi Hakeki, 30.
Police said the suspects had admitted to robbing and killing Sarino before driving away in his taxi.
All of the suspects will be charged under Article 365 of the Criminal Code on murder in the commission of a robbery, which carries a maximum penalty of death.
Hundreds of Express Taxi drivers demonstrated in front of the West Jakarta Police Headquarters on Monday to demand police investigate allegations that several officers were involved in the robbery and murder.
The police deny any officers were involved in Sarino's murder.