LAKSAMANA.Net, January 15, 2005 08:56 PM
Possessive Girlfriend Behind Bomb Scare
Laksamana.Net - A bomb threat that prompted the closure of the British and Thai
embassies in Jakarta was a hoax by a woman seeking to prevent her security guard
boyfriend from leaving the city, reports said Saturday (15/1/05).
The threat was sent late Thursday by a cellular phone text message to police, who
later searched the embassies, which were closed Friday due to the security scare.
The British Consulate in the nearby Deutsche Bank Building was also closed.
National Police chief General Dai Bachtiar initially speculated the threat might have
come from someone linked to fugitive terrorists Azahari Husin and Noordin
Mohammed Top, who are wanted for involvement in a string of deadly bombings.
But Jakarta Police spokesman Tjiptono on Saturday said the woman, Zulfah (22) had
sent the threat in the hope that it would force her boyfriend Agung, a guard at the Thai
Embassy, to stay on duty and cancel his planned visit to his hometown of Ngawi in
East Java province.
"She tried to prevent him from leaving because he would not take her with him,"
Tjiptono was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.
Zulfah was arrested on Friday afternoon and later sent to Mintoharjo Navy Hospital in
West Jakarta, where she was being treated for depression and nausea.
Police plan to charge her under the Criminal Code's Article 335 on contemptuous
conduct and making a threat that disturbs public order, an offense punishable by a
maximum sentence of one year in jail.
Tjiptono said police traced Zulfah through the number of her Nokia 3350 mobile phone,
which she used to send the hoax message.
The message, sent to a police security hotline, warned that bombs would be
detonated at the British and Thai embassies on Jalan Imam Bonjol, Central Jakarta. "
"I have bombs that I will place in the English and Thai embassies on Jalan Imam
Bonjol. "
I will blow them up on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. I'm not fooling and be
careful," read the message.
Zulfah's father, Subekti, told detikcom online news portal his distraught daughter
planned to marry Agung and therefore did not want him to leave Jakarta.
He said her health was deteriorating as a result of depression and stress. "This
morning she vomited blood and so far she has not yet recovered consciousness," he
added.
Subekti banned reporters from visiting Zulfah, the eldest of his five children. "I ask you
not to. Don't look for her. I have even banned her relatives from visiting her. I don't have
the heart for her to be seen in that condition," he said.
He said Agung was permitted to visit Zulfah and the two were apparently still planning
to get married.
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