Three men ganged up on and killed an Indonesian journalist, police said, after the victim reprimanded one of the perpetrators for urinating on his lawn.
Firdaus P Pangaribuan, who police said was a journalist for Papua Pos, was in his Cililitan, East Jakarta home on July 19 when he saw R, 24, peeing on his lawn. As was within his right, the 45-year-old journalist rebuked the youngster for the offense.
“The suspect did not accept being reprimanded by the victim when he urinated on the victim’s lawn,” Jakarta Metro Police spokesman Endra Zulpan said.
R went to fetch his father and a friend, before returning to Firdaus’ home. The three ganged up on the victim and assaulted him to death.
All three went into hiding following the deadly assault. R was arrested on Monday in Bekasi, while the other two suspects are still at large.
R has been charged with deadly assault, which is punishable by up to 12 years in prison under the Criminal Code (KUHP).
Police stressed that the assault was purely motivated by R’s anger towards Firdaus, and had nothing to do with the victim’s work as a journalist.
Strangely, there is no record of Firdaus being employed by Papua Pos – at least in the past two years. The Indonesian Television Journalists Association (IJTI), which has called for a transparent police investigation into Firdaus’ death, said the victim was indeed a senior reporter covering Papua, working as an editor for Raja Ampat Pos before moving to Genta Papua.
