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Suspicion mounts around David's death
Indonesia has asked Singaporean authorities to speed up the investigation into the death of David Hartanto Widjaya, an Indonesian student at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU), as the mystery deepens with an NTU staff member found hanged at the campus Friday
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Indonesia has asked Singaporean authorities to speed up the investigation into the death of David Hartanto Widjaya, an Indonesian student at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU), as the mystery deepens with an NTU staff member found hanged at the campus Friday.
“We respect the Singaporean legal process, but hope law enforcers there can solve the case soon,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said Monday.
Meanwhile, just five days after the death of David, Chinese national Zhou Zheng, 24, an NTU project officer, was found hanged in an apartment at the university’s campus Friday night, prompting speculation there was a connection between the death of the two foreign nationals.
The death of Zhou, who worked for the Division of Information at the School of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (EEE), comes after David, a final-year student also at the School of EEE, fell to his death after stabbing a professor the same day Zhou started work as an NTU project officer.
Singapore’s Strait Times daily reported that Zhou had studied at the School of EEE, where he graduated in July last year. Both apparently worked in the same lab, the newspaper quoted some NTU students as saying.
David, 21, fell to his death from the fourth floor of the NTU building Monday last week after stabbing Associate Professor Chan Kap Luk in the back during a discussion in his office. David's parents have since dismissed these claims of suicide, saying their son had no reason to kill himself.
David’s father Hartanto Widjaya said the apparent coincidence between the death of Zhou and his son required further investigation.
“We sense that many strange things have occurred here. What is the motive behind all this?” he asked.
He said Zhou’s death had reaffirmed his belief that David did not commit suicide.
“They even shared the same laboratory,” Hartanto said.
Police and the family are still waiting for the results from the investigation and autopsy.
