•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   
•    EYEWITNESS   

Denpasar. Robbery and rape were the motives behind the murder of a Japanese woman in a tourist district of Bali last weekend, Bali Police Chief Insp. Gen Sutisna has said.

Tests have shown that the victim, Hiromi Shimada, 41, had been raped and investigators say valuables belonging to her were missing, including a watch, credit cards and three necklaces, Sutisna told a news conference on Thursday.

“Forensic lab tests indicate the victim was raped,” Sutisna said.

Two men — Mawardi, 31, aka Anto and Abdurahman, 20, aka Abdu, both workers at a building construction site in Kuta — have been arrested over the murder and were present at the press conference.

Mawardi was arrested at his workplace in Kuta on Monday while Abdurahman was captured in Jember, East Java, where he had fled after the victim’s body was discovered. Police had shot him in the leg to prevent him from escaping arrest.

Police said the men were found with a number of items linking them to the crime, including a yellow-handled knife used in the murder, telephone cable that was used to tie victim’s hands and feet and some of her valuables, including an Alexander Christie Passion watch.

Sutisna said the homicide started with a meeting between Shimada, Mawardi, Abdurrahman and another man named Dani at a small cafe on Jalan Raya Kuta.

According to the police investigations, the four sat and drank one bottle of local wine before Shimada, Mawardi and Abdurahman left for Shimada’s leased house on Jalan Sada Sari in Kuta, while Dani returned to his boarding house.

At her house, Shimada and her two companions sat in the front room, where she offered them more wine before excusing herself to take a bath.

Shimada, however, did not lock the bathroom door, and Abdurrahman entered the room and asked the naked women to have sexual intercourse. Shimada rejected his advances but Abdurahman, with Mawardi’s assistance, dragged her kicking and screaming out of the bathroom.

Police said they then gagged and tied her before taking turns raping her. Abdurahman also took a watch and necklace from her body, as well as Rp 9,000(95 cents), credit cards, and another necklace from her bag.

Mawardi, however, became angry when somehow Shimada managed to spit at him and he stabbed her several times in the stomach.

The two then left went to a shop to buy jamu , or traditional medicine, and soft drinks with the victim’s money. Police said they threw away the credit cards because they didn’t know how to use them.

Back at their Wisma Bali II boarding house, Mawardi hid the stainless steel knife above the water tower.

Mawardi, a construction worker originally from East Lombok who had been working on the island since March 2008, said he first met the victim that day at the cafe.

Sutisna said the two perpetrators face 20 years in prison.

Ida Bagus Subhiksu, head of the Bali Tourism Office, fearful the incident could harm the tourism industry, thanked the police for the quick capture of the alleged murderers.