Indonesian journalist arrested in connection with murder he reported on
Edison Purba wrote a piece on the murder, and said that the killer and motive were unknown
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Your support makes all the difference.An Indonesian journalist stands accused of murdering a man and then reporting the killing on a news website shortly afterwards.
Police arrested Edison Purba and two other suspects after one of them turned himself in.
Purba, a crime reporter for the Pekanbaruexpress.com news website, and the two other suspects were detained after a man who had withdrawn money from a bank in Pekanbaru city on Sumatra Island was robbed and murdered.
Pekanbaru police chief detective Hariwiyawan, said that evidence suggested that Purba was involved, adding the reporter had regularly contacted police for news about crime.
"One of them didn't get the money that was supposed to be split among them. That was why he confessed to the police," Hariwiyawan said. "They are accusing each other of being the killer."
"From the other suspect's confession, we knew that Edi [Purba]was on the motorcycle with another suspect called Amin, but Edi said he wasn't.
"But, from the evidence, we concluded that Edi was involved in this case or at least he knew. The witnesses saw him on the spot too," he said according to Sky News.
Purba was believed to have returned to the scene of the killing to report on it, according to police and local media.
The news website published a report by Purba, along with a photograph he had taken of the victim lying on a blood-stained road.
In his piece, Purba identified the victim as Mulyono, 35, and said that the killer and motive were unknown.
Following Purba’s arrest, the head of the TV journalists' union, Yusril Ardanis, said: "I hope this case will become an example and learning point for everyone and especially for the authorities in charge of the regulations as it is way too easy to create a media outlet for unclear purposes."
Additional reporting by Reuters
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