Woman found hanged in police hospital

JAKARTA (JP): A woman was found hanged in a ward of the R.S. Soekanto Police Hospital in Kramat Jati, East Jakarta, yesterday morning.

Andi Nuraida, 39, who was under medical treatment since Wednesday after being attacked by residents while she attempted to kill her husband, was found at 9 a.m. reportedly hanging from a cloth tied to the ward's window bars, police said.

According to City Police spokesman Lt. Col. E. Aritonang, the housewife was believed to have committed suicide.

"She used a shawl to hang herself from the bar," he said.

"Doctors who treated her at the hospital also found that Nuraida was very depressed. She was emotionally unstable," said Aritonang.

Aritonang said that the woman was being treated for several injuries received during Wednesday's attack by an angry mob who found her attempting to kill her husband Rozali at the latter's first wife's house in Tanah Tinggi, Johar Baru, Central Jakarta.

Nuraida was Rozali's second wife, he said.

Nuraida reportedly stabbed Rozali, 39, in the abdomen, chest and face with a knife while the victim was sleeping.

Nuraida told police interrogators that she was very mad and worried that Rozali might divorce her, said Aritonang.

"She said she was upset because Rozali had abandoned her for months and only cared for his first wife," he said.

Rozali, who was being treated at Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital, visited the hospital's morgue to look at Nuraida's body, which had been transferred there for a post mortem examination.

He told reporters that he used to love Nuraida but not anymore.

"She kept asking me to divorce my first wife and began to ask for many other things. I slowly learned that she had a bad temper," said Rozali, who was accompanied by relatives and friends.

He said Wednesday's incident at Tanah Tinggi occurred after they were involved in a heated argument with each other.

The quarrel was reportedly overheard by neighbors, who later attacked Nuraida when she tried to flee from the scene, said Rozali.

Another police source said that Nuraida was not very cooperative with police while in the hospital.

She often cried and refused to eat her meals, and sometimes yelled asking for her husband's forgiveness, said Capt. Suwito of the Johar Baru Police Subprecinct.

"But I think we'll continue with the investigation of Nuraida's death. That's why we sent the body to this hospital for a post mortem examination," he said. (04/cst)