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Jakarta. Police in Southeast Maluku have identified a suspect in the killing of journalist Ridwan Salamun, a National Police spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Ridwan died from machete slashes on Saturday as he was covering ongoing clashes involving two separate villages in Tual, said Dien Kelilauw from the Maluku Media Center.

“The local police chief of detectives have informed me that they have named one person as a suspect. He is identified only as IR. He is currently undergoing marathon police questioning,” National Police deputy spokesman Sr. Comr. Ketut Untung Yoga said on Tuesday.

He added that IR, a villager, was declared a suspect after police questioned 13 witnesses. “We believe he was the one who slashed the victim. We are also going to track down other suspects involved in the crime,” he said.

Ridwan, 28, was a reporter for the Ambon-based newspaper Ambon Express and a contributor for the Jakarta-based SUN TV and RCTI.

According to media reports, the clash between residents of Banda Eli and Mangun in Fiditan village in Tual was triggered by a minor disagreement which quickly escalated.

Some residents of Banda Eli reportedly told a motorcyclist from Mangun to slow down while driving through their neighborhood.

The motorcyclist then called on some friends from his neighborhood to attack those who had rebuked him.

Ridwan, whose family is from Banda Eli, was assaulted by a mob and hacked with a machete.

He was taken to a hospital but died two hours later, the Indonesian Television Journalists Association said on Sunday. His camera is still missing.

The killing follows the July 30 death of Ardiansyah Matra’is, a Papuan reporter with Merauke TV whose body was found in the Gudang Arang River in Merauke two days after he had been reported missing.

The National Police have declared his death was normal “after examining his body.”

“We did not find any indications that he was assaulted,” another police spokesman Brig. Gen. Iskandar Hasan had said. But the Papuan branch of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) have established a team to investigate the case.

“There are six members on the team and they would be deployed to Merauke,” Matius Murib, deputy chairman of Papua branch of Komnas HAM, said on Tuesday.

The team will also investigate the party responsible for spreading terror among journalists in Merauke, Rajawali editor-in-chief Jojo previously said.

Journalists in Merauke had received a barrage of threats, likely linked to the district head elections on Aug. 8.

“The terror amongst journalists in Merauke is also in our agenda because it seems like it is connected with Ardiansyah’s death,” he said.

Murib said that from the preliminary investigation, the team concluded that Ardiansyah’s death was very likely connected to the regional elections in Merauke.