Two indicted for kidnapping baby

JAKARTA (JP): Two women were indicted at Central Jakarta District Court Tuesday on charges of kidnapping a 17-day-old baby girl from a woman who was sentenced by the same court to one year in jail for committing a similar offense in 1996.

Prosecutor Shinta Shasanti said the defendants, identified as Dasiyah, 25, and Sumiati, 29, snatched the baby from Yanti's lap in the compound of the Istiqlal Mosque in Central Jakarta on Feb. 24.

Dasiyah and Sumiati entered the mosque compound at 4 p.m. when Yanti was breast-feeding her baby, Ika Febrianty.

"When Yanti fell asleep, the defendants approached her and Dasiyah snatched the baby from her," Shinta said.

The defendants left the scene quickly, but in doing so, raised the suspicions of Amir, a security guard at the mosque, she said.

Amir approached the two women and questioned them as they waited for a bajaj (three-wheeled taxi), she said.

Shinta said the security guard apprehended the women and handed them into a nearby police station after they gave confusing answers to his questions.

Dasiyah, a scavenger, told police that she intended to sell the baby to a buyer, identified as Yati, for Rp 50,000 (US$4.7), she said. Yati is still at large.

Dasiyah asked her friend Sumiati, a beverage vendor, to assist her and promised to give her half of the money she earned from the crime, she said.

Shinta said Yanti, a scavenger, was sentenced to one year in jail by the same court in 1996 for kidnapping a baby.

She said Dasiyah's husband, Sutarno, was serving out a sentence for robbery in Salemba penitentiary.

Both Dasiyah and Sumiati are being held at the Pondok Bambu detention center for women.

Dasiyah said that she attempted to kidnap the baby because she had been involved in a quarrel with Yanti a month before the incident.

"Yanti was jealous of me. She accused me of having an affair with her husband," she said.

Shinta charged the defendants under Article 328 of the Criminal Code which carries a maximum sentence of 12 years in jail.

Presiding judge Abas Sumantri adjourned the trial until next week to hear witnesses' testimonies. (jun)