Alleged panty thief faces trial in East Jakarta

JAKARTA: A love affair turned sour will end up in court as a man is set to go to trial for allegedly stealing his former lover’s underwear.

Samsu Alam, a resident of Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, was arrested by officers from the Ciracas precinct in East Jakarta in October as he returned the underwear of Dede Juwitawati, which he claimed were mixed up with his clothes.

“The defendant is set to stand trial at the East Jakarta District Court,” Jefri Kam, Samsu’s lawyer from the Mawar Saron Legal Aid Foundation, said as quoted by kompas.com on Tuesday.

Samsu met Dede, a married civil servant with two children, on Facebook in April. They moved in together in a rented house in Ciracas. Dede reported Samsu to the police for domestic violence in September that led to Samsu’s detention for a week, after which he was freed for lack of evidence.

Samsu then left Dede and to take a job on ship overseas when he allegedly found her underwear in his luggage. He contacted Dede and went to her house to return the underwear, but the police picked him up.

Mawar Saron director Hotma Sitompul suspected foul play was related to the flopped domestic violence case and said that he would report officers involved in the case to the police’s internal affairs division.