Indonesian police suspect 3 Australians of premeditated murder of a fellow national in Bali
Indonesian police suspect 3 Australians of premeditated murder of a fellow national in Bali
MENGWI, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian police investigating the fatal shooting of an Australian tourist at a villa on the resort island of Bali said Thursday that two Australians are suspected of arriving on a scooter and opening fire and another Australian of facilitating the crime.
Zivan Radmanovic, a 32-year-old from Melbourne, was killed just after midnight on June 13 at a villa near Munggu Beach in Bali’s Badung district. A second man, a 34-year-old from Melbourne, was left beaten in the attack.
Police previously announced that they had arrested three Australian men, and at a news conference Thursday gave new details of an investigation they said was supported by the Australian Federal Police. Investigators have not revealed a motive in the killing, but said they have enough evidence to bring the men to trial on charges of premeditated murder, which could carry a life sentence or the death penalty.
The crime scene investigation and surveillance cameras have showed that two suspects, identified by their initials as MC and PT, were the shooters, Bali Police Chief Daniel Adityajaya told a news conference in Badung.
The third suspect, identified as DJF, helped the others by buying a hammer used to break down the villa door, renting two cars and three motorcycles and buying ferry and bus tickets to flee the island, Adityajaya said.
One of the suspects was caught at Jakarta’s Soekarno Hatta international airport on June 16, and the following day the other two were arrested with the help of Interpol, in Singapore and Cambodia, and sent back to Indonesia.
Police on Thursday presented the three suspects handcuffed and wearing orange prison uniforms.
Witnesses at the villa told investigators that two gunmen arrived on a scooter at the villa around midnight. Radmanovic was shot in a bathroom of his room, where police found 18 bullet casings and two intact bullets.
Radmanovic’s partner, Jazmyn Gourdeas, 30, told police that she suddenly woke up when she heard her husband screaming. She cowered under a blanket when she heard multiple gunshots. She later found her husband’s body and the other injured Australian, whose wife also testified to seeing the attackers. The women are sisters.
Adityajaya said police have retrieved one of two guns that were thrown away by the suspects near a rice field, about 700 meters (yards) from the villa. They also found bullet residues at gloves and balaclavas inside a white van used by the three men, and the same residues also were found on the bodies of two of the suspects.
Police did not detail how they believe the suspects obtained the weapons, which are heavily regulated in Indonesia, but Adityajaya said police were still gathering evidence.
Adityajaya said that the Australian national who survived the attack and the women have been relocated to a secure location.
By FIRDIA LISNAWATI
Associated Press
