The East Java Police has arrested Joni Krisnanto for his alleged involvement in the murder of Fauzin, in the now infamous Jombang case.

Joni is a boyfriend of Rudi Hartono, who recently confessed during police questioning to killing Fauzin.

Three other men were wrongfully arrested for the crime, two of whom are currently serving jail terms. The third is on trial.

Joni was arrested Monday after a two-day interrogation of Rudi, police sources said Tuesday. Rudi was arrested when he was paying Fauzin's motorcycle tax at the Sidoarjo Police office at the weekend.

Although the police source said Joni was arrested over his knowledge about the murder, Rudi claimed Joni was indirectly involved in the case.

The source reported that Joni gave Rudi a ride on his bicycle after the latter allegedly killed Fauzin in a sugarcane plantation in Bandar Kedungmulyo in September, 2007.

The police are still gathering evidence to build their case before bringing the two to trial.

Rudi, who was accompanied by a team of lawyers during the police interrogation, said during questioning that he had killed Fauzin because Fauzin underpaid him for his sexual services. He said he had received only Rp 22,000 (US$2.1) of the Rp 100,000 Fauzin had promised him.

The relatives of Rudi and Fauzin were reportedly shocked by the police statement that a sexual relationship between the two men was at the center of the murder.

The arrest of Rudi and Joni was expected to end the prolonged controversy over the case, but hope that the three men wrongly arrested for the murder would be released immediately is fading.

Instead, the trial of Sugianto alias Sugik continued in Jombang District Court on Monday. The district attorney's office in the regency said it would not release Imam Khambali alias Kemat and Devid Eko Priyanto, who are serving jail terms in Jombang prison for the murder.

"We will continue trying the case according to the reports filed by police. Sugik's lawyers should be able to convince the panel of judges that their client is innocent," Agung Suradi, a member of the panel of judges trying the case, told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Last Thursday, Sugik's lawyers walked out of the courtroom after the panel of judges ignored their protests. The defense team accused the judges of being involved in a conspiracy with the police and prosecutors.

The court has reopened Devid's and Kemat's cases at their request. Their lawyers have demanded police interrogators testify as to how the original investigation was conducted.

Witnesses representing the relatives of Fauzin and Asrori said they did not understand any of the information in the dossiers prepared by the police.

The trial of the three was found to have been conducted in error, because the victim turned out not to be Asrori, as originally claimed, but Fauzin.

The 10 November Institute of Technology (ITS) in Surabaya is offering a new solution to control the hot mudflows at the Lapindo Brantas Inc. mining site in Porong and a new way to manage the dumping of mudflow waste.

The new technology was invented and developed by an ITS team of experts in cooperation with the UN Environmental Program (UNEP) and United Stated Agency for International Development (USAID).

ITS team leader I Nyoman Sutantra said the technology was based on the Bernoulli Theory.

It would stop the flows by rerouting the hot mudflow through a dam of pipes of 50 centimeters in diameter and 50 meters in height, each erected right on the source of the flow, he said.

The flow, he added, would go back down the pipes to be diverted, once it reached their top end.

"We have conducted research and a series of experiments to analyze the validity of the idea. We are confident this could deal with the mudflow," he told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

He said his team, in cooperation with the private sector, was ready to finance the implementation of the solution to control the mudflow that has badly affected local residents and the provincial economy.

The new technological solution comes following a series of failures of other technologies previously proposed to stop the mudflow, including the insertion of stone balls into the holes and various methods suggested to divert the flow.

Regarding the method that his team has proposed to deal with the mudflow, Sutantra said it was designed to prevent further destruction of the environment and possible flash flooding during the rainy season.

The team sees the current handling by the Sidoarjo Mudflow Handling Agency (BPLS) as being not effective enough, since the mudflow is partly dumped into a giant pond and partly diverted into the Porong River.

This, according to his team, has damaged the environment and could trigger flash flooding in the city during the rainy season.

Since October, 2006, the volume of mudflow containing oil and gas and dumped into the river has reached 69 million cubic meters.

This has formed a layer of sediment four meters thick on the riverbed, thus reducing its depth and causing it to overflow, producing odorous gases in the surrounding areas.

"What we want to introduce is to divert the hot mud to the downstream wetlands, where shrimp ponds belonging to villagers are located," Sutantra said.

The mudflow, he said, could be rerouted through 20-kilometer pipelines to the wetlands. "Then we will no longer need to dump the hot mud to the storage pond or the river," he added.

The new dump site, he said, could be planted with mangroves that could absorb the salt content and toxic substances in the hot mud and the site could later be developed into farmland.

"This will be the best alternative win-win solution and the safest way to salvage the environment and help save the Surabaya residents from a possible environmental and social disaster," he said.

"But this will be very costly as the development of the dump site requires the acquisition of thousands of hectares of shrimp and fish ponds belonging to local people," he added.

Sutantra also said that should the method be applied, the current giant pond could be developed into a residential complex and apartments to help the housing crisis in the capital city.

Meanwhile, the BPLS deputy chairman overseeing operational affairs, Soffian Hadi, said the current disposal of hot mud into the river was an effective way of dealing with the problem.

The United States government has provided up-to-date forensic equipment to assist police in solving crimes, including the case of serial killer Verry Idham Henyanksyah, also known as Ryan.

The East Java Police on Wednesday received a DNA testing device among 35 items of equipment, including a biochemical material extraction device, a number of digitized high resolution cameras, bullet recovery tanks and digital microscopes.

This is part of an effort to help set up an accurate and complete database on criminals and to gradually replace dependence on older methods, based on photos and finger prints.

The United States Justice Department's International Criminal Investigative Training Assistant Program (ICITAT) senior consultant, David N. Gidlen, said all the equipment was internationally certified and generally used by Interpol.

"We (the United States government) have also donated other equipment to the Indonesian National Police, such as 15 patrol boats to the water police," he told The Jakarta Post.

Head of the National Police forensics lab in Surabaya, Sr. Comr. Bambang Wahyu Suprapto, said the equipment would be used to help identify the last of 10 victims in the serial killing case.

"We encountered problems identifying the body because it has badly decomposed. We are able to identify the first nine bodies from tests conducted at the National Police headquarters in Jakarta. We hope to identify the last body, allegedly killed by Verry in 2006, by using the equipment from America.

"We no longer have to send DNA test samples to headquarters, especially since we have three United States-trained experts at our disposal," said Bambang.

Bambang said Verry was currently in the custody of the Jakarta Police for further questioning, after a polygraph or lie detector test for two days at the East Java Police headquarters.

"Police presented 30 questions to investigate his motives for the killings, chronological events and the possibility of other parties being involved in the serial killings. Verry continues to deny any involvement on the part of other parties," said Bambang.

Investigators speculated the killings may have involved others besides Verry, from the discovery of a hammer buried under Verry's room which had been used, together with the victims' belongings, such as two motorbikes.

Verry complained of difficulties in concentrating during the two days of lie detector tests. To make him feel relaxed, police granted his requests for cakes, durian juice and Thai chicken porridge.

Police will also conduct lie detector tests on Verry's parents, Ahmad Shodikun and Kasiyatun, to help determine whether or not others were involved in the case and the exact number of victims.

The police Thursday confirmed that serial killer suspect Verry Idam Henyansyah, better known as Ryan, was not mentally ill and was completely conscious when committing the alleged murders.

"There are no signs of serious mental illness in his judgment of reality, and what is good and normal," said East Java Police psychiatrist Adj. Sr. Comr. Rony Subagyo in Surabaya on Thursday.

Verry fully understands and realizes what he has done and consequences it carries, Rony said.

Verry is sensitive and easily gets annoyed and angry, Rony said. When angry, Verry becomes very impulsive and aggressive, expressing his anger by, for example, throwing, smashing and beating things.

Verry's personality, he said, was the result of being raised in a family that quarreled constantly and a lack of care. Because of his dominating mother, Verry grew up to become a bad tempered, aggressive man who hates women.

"That may accounts for why he is a homosexual and likes to dress in women's clothing," Rony said, adding that his mother, Kasiyatun, had the same bad temper.

Nevertheless, there is no relationship between Verry's sexual orientation and his brutal actions, he said.

During the psychological examination, Rony said, Verry often showed the characteristics of insanity.

"There was no sign of regret," Rony said.

Meanwhile, a thorough excavation by the police in Verry's backyard and inside his home in Jombang on Thursday did not uncover any bodies.

The police previously found 10 bodies in the backyard and believe there may be up to six more bodies buried at the site. They plan to excavate again on Friday.

Verry, who is currently in East Java Police custody, reportedly continues to insist that he "only" killed 10 people, which were found in his backyard, and another, mutilated in Jakarta.

"He has made no further confession other than that," said East Java Police crime investigation unit chief, Sr. Comr. Rusli Nasution.

Verry's killing spree was revealed after the police arrested him for allegedly killing and mutilating Heri Santoso, 40, in Depok, West Jakarta, on July 11. Parts of Heri's body were dumped in Ragunan area, South Jakarta.

East Java Police's general crime unit chief, Adj. Sr. Comr. Susanto, said they would investigate people close to Verry under suspicion that they might also be involved in the alleged murders.

Up to Thursday, East Java Police had questioned 25 witnesses including Verry's parents, relatives, neighbors and manual workers who were ordered to dig up Verry's backyard.

Susanto also said that three of the 10 bodies, identified as Ariel Somba Sitanggang (Jakarta), Vincensius Yudi Priono (Wonogiri, Central Java), and Guruh Setio Pramono (Nganjuk, East Java), will be delivered to their respective families Friday for proper burials.

The two pairs leading the East Java gubernatorial election have started approaching the losing campaign teams in an attempt to grab their support in an election rerun.

According to quick count results, the pair of Soekarwo and Saefullah Yusuf took the lead in Wednesday's election with 26 percent of the vote and their strongest rivals Khofifah Indar Parawansa and Mudjiono trailed with 25 percent.

The other three pairs — Sutjipto-Ridwan Hisjam, Soenaryo-Ali Maschan Moesa, and Achmady-Soehartono — lost the tight race, the quick count results show.

The 2008 Elections Law requires poll authorities to rerun a regional election 60 days after the first election round should the contesting candidates get less than 30 percent of the vote.

The East Java election commission is yet to determine whether to hold a revote as it is still counting the votes.

The Soekarwo camp said it will approach top executives of the National Awakening Party (PKB), the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the Golkar Party, which all stood behind the losing candidates.

A similar step will also be taken by Khofifah to face Soekarwo in the likely election rerun, said her campaign team.

"We will try to embrace all of them to win their support during the revote," Soekarwo's campaign team coordinator Martono said Thursday in Surabaya, East Java.

The Khofifah-Mudjiono pair was endorsed by the United Development Party (PPP) and 11 other minority parties, while Soekarwo-Saefullah ran for the election with backing from the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the Democratic Party.

Airlangga University political expert Mohammad Asfar said the two winning pairs would certainly seek coalitions with the parties that backed the losers and personal alliances with the losing candidates.

For example, the Soekarwo-Saefullah pair will likely set up a "personal coalition" with the Soenaryo-Ali Maschan camp who were endorsed by the Golkar, he added.

This coalition is likely to be based on a "personal relationship" between Soenaryo and Soekarwo, who both used to be senior bureaucrats at the East Java administration, Asfar said.

He said Soekarwo was among Soenaryo's cadres prepared to replace the incumbent East Java governor, Imam Utomo.

"Meanwhile, the Golkar Party that endorsed Soenaryo's candidacy will likely support Khofifah Indar Parawansa. But this prediction could change because both Soekarwo and Khofifah have an equal chance to win the revote," Asfar said.

However, the PDI-P that nominated the Sutjipto-Ridwan Hisjam pair said it was still considering a coalition either with Khofifah or Soekarwo depending on who gives the party greater political benefits.

The coalitions are being planned despite a series of surveys showing that party support is not a key factor for the contesting candidates to win direct local elections.

The fact that Soekarwo and Khofifah will advance to election rerun after defeating the three other pairs despite backing from major parties, has confirmed the survey results.