Triple murderess gets death

SURABAYA: An East Java woman who murdered three women and cut them into pieces was sentenced to death yesterday, Antara reported.

The news agency said the Surabaya District Court found 41-year Astini guilty of premeditated murder of her neighbors.

In his verdict, Judge Maskin said he could not find anything that could mitigate the heinous crimes she had committed.

The three victims were Sri Astutik, Sri Rahayu, and Puji Astutik. They were murdered separately between August 1993 and September 1995. The court said Astini murdered them because she could not repay the loans she had borrowed from them.

Each time after she committed the murder, she dumped their bodies, and moved to a new address to escape detection.

Arrested early this year for the murder of Puji Astutik, she subsequently admitted to have killed two other women.

When the verdict was read, relatives of the victims who were following the trials shouted "Allah is Great" and "You're Dead" as Astini was being whisked out of the court by dozens of security guards. (emb)