Woman kills spouse in front of kids

JAKARTA (JP): South Jakarta Police detectives arrested a 39- year-old woman for stabbing her allegedly abusive husband on Tuesday evening.

Officer Second Lt. Kasroni said on Wednesday that Nurjanah, the fourth wife of taxi driver Suwardi, 42, was apprehended at the family's home on Jl. Kemuning Raya in Pasar Minggu, shortly after the crime took place.

"Nurjanah did not give us any difficulty," Kasroni said.

"We found her sitting very quietly on a sofa at her home, while the half-naked body of her husband lay in a pool of blood in front of her," the officer said.

The killing took place in front of the couple's three children.

The woman said she suffered from beatings, kicks, slaps and verbal insults inflicted by her husband in the past 16 years of marriage.

"He first beat me in our first week of marriage. Then he got into the habit of it. He did it in front of the children and the neighbors almost every night as far as I can remember. For the sake of my children, I kept quiet," Nurjanah told The Jakarta Post.

Suwardi said when she went home on Tuesday evening he demanded an immediate divorce as he wanted to marry a Sundanese girl.

"I told him, fine. Marry her. But please don't divorce me. If he divorces me, he will either leave the children to die, or take them away from me," she said.

But he did not want to listen and instead started to beat her and throw her clothes out of the house, Nurjanah said.

Suwardi then threatened to kill her, but he failed to reach the knife in the kitchen first, she said.

"When he tried to lunge at me, my hand slipped and the knife went into his chest," she said.

Suwardi died instantly from the knife piercing his heart. (ylt)