Unemployed men arrested for beating friend to death

JAKARTA (JP): Police in Tebet, South Jakarta, have arrested five men, aged between 16 and 23, on charges of causing the death of a member of their own group of friends after the victim lost a drinking competition.

City Police Spokesman Lt. Col. Bambang Permantoro said yesterday that two other suspects, members of the same group, are still at large.

According to preliminary investigations, the victim, identified as Harun, alias Ujang, 24, was brutally kicked and beaten by his seven fellows after he failed to continue drinking spirits at the birthday party of one of the suspects on Aug. 12.

The dying man is thought to have then been dumped by his drunken attackers beside a railway track near the crime scene. The fatal beating is believed to have taken place at Kampung Melayu Barat in the Bukit Tinggi subdistrict.

"Ujang was later found (dying) by local people, who then informed his relatives," Bambang said.

Initially, Ujang's relatives thought Ujang had been hit by a train.

They immediately rushed Ujang to the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital in Central Jakarta. He died on Aug. 15.

The relatives only realized that Ujang had been assaulted by his own friends after hearing accounts from a number people who saw the fatal assault taking place, police said.

"Several hours before Ujang died, his relatives reported the case to the local police," Bambang said.

The five suspects, identified as Ag, Nan, Ta, EM and EP, were arrested at different places in and around Jakarta by Tebet detectives on the following day.

The two suspects not yet apprehended have been identified as Ek and Iw.

Most of the group members, including Ujang, are unemployed. (bsr)